Earlier this year we found that Halfords Autocentres is neck-and-neck with Kwik-Fit for the title of largest car tyre retailer in the UK, with 650 centres a piece. However, what that figure doesn’t tell you is just how influential the company’s commercial vehicle tyre business has become. Tyres & Accessories recently met up with Halfords Commercial Fleet Services director, Greg Ward in order to find out.
Halfords Group has reported strong full-year 2022 revenue growth of +19.9 per cent compared with 2020. That means total group revenues amounted to £1.369 billion in 2022, of which £368 million came from the autocentres business – an increase of 91.9 per cent compared with 2020. Group gross margin totalled £721.7 million, of which £211.0 million came from Autocentres. Much of the Autocentres-driven growth comes via the acquisitions of Iversons and the Axle Group/National Tyres last year, however life-for-like growth of 23.4 per cent shows that business continues on an organic upward trajectory as well. As a result, Halfords Autocentres gross margin is now growing six-times faster than the group’s wider retail business.
Greg Ward has joined the Halfords Autocentres business, where the experienced truck, bus and agricultural tyre specialist will be commercial sales director.
Following Halfords’ recent acquisitions of Universal Tyres and McConnechy’s before that, many have speculated regarding what the future holds for Lodge Tyres. Rumours aside, the short story is that Lodge Tyres had a good 2020 despite the obvious Covid-19-related adversity and is set for further growth in 2021. Tyres & Accessories met with Lodge Tyres managing director Andy Christmas and commercial director Martin O’Brien in order to get the latest details straight from Lodge Tyres’ management.
Halfords has extended its reach into the UK tyre retail space with the acquisition of Universal Tyre and Autocentres for £15 million. Kent-based Universal has 20 garages and 89 commercial vans operating in the South East and on the east coast of the UK. Universal also operates 1 warehouse/head office and from 5 other sites. The company specialises in the supply and fit of tyres for a wide range of vehicles, from cars to commercial and agricultural vehicles. Universal branches also offer general car maintenance and repairs such as brakes, servicing and MOT.
Universal Tyres recently bought three Tyrework tyre retail branches from Kings Road Tyre Group (KRT). The branches based in Heathrow, Gatwick and Aylesford, were officially acquired on 6 January 2018 and bring the total number of Universal retail centres to 18 points of sale.
Universal Tyre & Autocentres Ltd is the first commercial tyre service provider to go ‘live’ with the e-jobsheet link into Bridgestone Europe’s Siebel system directly from CAM’s UniSerV platform. According to CAM, the integration will deliver greater shared accuracy between the parties as well as improve the speed and visibility of job processing, further enabling the NTDA ‘Fastfit of the Year’ award winner to excel in the commercial fleet space.
CAM has scheduled the second UniSerV User Group (UUG) meeting for April, coinciding with The CV Show at the Birmingham NEC. Chaired by Anne Sherwood, group business support manager of Tructyre Fleet Management, CAM says UUG² will continue to discuss the benefits of e-jobsheet, CAM’s open-access mobile data platform for digital tablet technology in the truck, bus and van service arena.
CAM has hosted the inaugural UniSerV User Group (UUG) meeting, chaired by Anne Sherwood, business support manager of Tructyre Fleet Management. The event took place ahead of the NTDA dinner on Wednesday, 8 October 2014 at Manchester’s Hilton Deansgate. The software provider discussed the latest release of the software with some of its leading customers, using the meeting to identify and plan future developments to benefit the commercial tyre sector.
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