The Springwater Capital financial group has made a binding offer for Fintyre, which is currently controlled by Bain Capital. No details have officially been released, but some Italian news sources are reporting that the Springwater offer includes a capital increase of 50 million euros. The company has been in talks with potential new investors since May.
Work on RH Claydon’s new 20,000 square feet warehouse in Launceston, Cornwall is almost complete. RH Claydon (RHC) representatives are aiming for the location to be fully operational in January 2021. For them, more space means more stock to supply the tyre wholesaler’s “already growing customer base in the south west of the UK”.
There have been serious challenges to tyre distribution in 2020, and while demand has returned with the end of the national lockdown, Covid-19’s autumn rise means the spectre of spring’s market conditions looms over the winter months. This year, companies have needed to manage the operational problems posed by the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns throughout Europe; they also needed to weigh up wildly fluctuating supply and demand. Whether there is a return to a concerted national effort similar to the UK’s actions in April and May or not, the lessons learned during this period continue to prove relevant. Meanwhile, the sector was already experiencing difficult times prior to the outbreak, with European tyre market demand flat overall in the light vehicle sector – a situation that certainly deteriorated in the pandemic. For the October magazine’s wholesale feature, Tyres & Accessories spoke to a range of players in the wholesale sector in Western Europe to look at the lessons of this year, and how recovery is progressing. We start with Micheldever Tyre Services, a leading UK player in the light vehicle tyre market especially, which has experienced a “strong” return of demand in the second half of the year, according to wholesale director Graham Mitchell.
Bush Tyres is set to open three new locations during the next couple of weeks. First off, the company is opening retail centres in Norwich and Immingham. In addition, Bush Tyres has invested in a new 70,000 square foot warehouse as well.
With its AU$48.7 million (£26.7 million) acquisition of Tyres 4U assets in Australia and New Zealand, National Tyre & Wheel becomes one of the region’s largest tyre wholesalers and the largest independent, multi-branded wholesaler in both countries. The transaction was finalised in August and more than doubles National’s distribution centre footprint in the two countries, with its nine company-owned and four third-party facilities complemented by 11 Tyres 4U centres in Australia and three in New Zealand. Combined tyre volume for the Australian financial year ending 30 June 2020 exceeded 2.5 million units, with a revenue of $450 million (£247 million).
Same-day service is convenient, but Tire Group International (TGI) can go you one better. The Miami-based tyre wholesaler is now offering its customers in South Florida guaranteed deliveries within 90 minutes of ordering. It is providing this ‘TGI Fast Pass’ programme in addition to its existing twice a day delivery service.
Netherlands-based tyre wholesaler Heuver has grown through its acquisition of the Bevri Groep, a wholesaler from Zeewolde in central Netherlands. Heuver will operate the two Bevri businesses, Bevri Banden (Bevri Tyres) and Bevri Wheels, as an independent company within the Heuver Group, retaining a separate corporate identity. The wholesaler says that by combining the strengths of both companies, it can now “offer an even more complete range” of tyres and wheels.
The current COVID19 crisis has posed the biggest challenge to Micheldever Tyre Services (MTS) in over 45 years of operating in the 4×4 market, the company reports, resulting in MTS increasing support to its dealer network to unprecedented levels.
Anyone wanting to know how Reifen Krieg founders Holger Krieg and Tobias Fink would react to the bankruptcy of the tyre wholesaler they founded in 2007 and then sold to the Fintyre Group in 2018 no longer needs to wait. They have founded Tyroo GmbH in Neuhof, Germany.
Last month this column considered the range of 2020 market projections that existed. In short, as the column concluded, the consensus is that tyre demand will decline somewhere between 15 and 26 per cent during the course of this year. However, such a conclusion may also be on the conservative side. Certainly, when you talk with tyre wholesalers and distributors on the ground, some of those that didn’t opt to close their doors for a few weeks experienced even more marked declines in the short-term. Reports of tyre shops running on demand 70 to 75 per cent less than pre-lockdown levels are not uncommon. And yet, as lockdown eases across various UK and European markets – as well as beyond – the focus is quite rightly shifting to recovery.
During our recent “Kickstarting your tyre business webinar”, the panel shared lockdown stories of how they have survived and even experienced success during these difficult times. For his part, Graham Mitchell, wholesale director of Micheldever Tyre Services, shared details of how his company moved from its role as a leading wholesaler to a more support-orientated position. For those pivoting into this new role during lockdown, far from having less to do, this meant being even busier than normal despite wholesale volumes dropping to 25 per cent of normal levels during the depths of lockdown (levels are much more normal now, however).
A week ago, Bridgestone announced its acquisition of 42 Reiff Reifen und Autotechnik retail outlets in Germany from the now-bankrupt Fintyre Group business. The insolvency administrator handling the Fintyre case reports that buyers have also been found for two further Fintyre businesses, Duro Reifenservice GmbH and Reifen24 GmbH.
Some ten weeks ago, German tyre wholesaler RS Exclusiv Reifengroßhandel GmbH entered insolvency as part of the Fintyre Group’s operations in Germany. It now seems that the company’s days are numbered. The insolvency administrator’s office confirmed the sale of RS Exclusiv’s headquarters site north of Hamburg to our German partner magazine, Neue Reifenzeitung. The wholesaler has quarter of a year to pack its things and go. But the insolvency administrator also reports another, more cogent reason for winding up the business.
Cosmo Tires is excited to announce the three newest members of its product line, the M+S/All-Season El Jefe HT, the M+S/All Season and the All Weather rated El Tigre AT, and the M+S/All-Season TigerTail. All are available for immediate order.
RH Claydon
MTS
Silksheen Photo, Bush Tyres
BF Goodrich; MTS
Tyroo
Anna; Pexels
Tyre Industry Publications Ltd
Cosmo, TGI