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UNITED KINGDOM
Jack Crangle and daughter Debbie Cartwright
TRM Black Dragon tyre builder is an example if the investment at Kingpin
The company headquarters in Wem, Shropshire
Kingpin: New Approach to Market Pays Dividends
Kingpin Tyres, the UK-based passenger retreader, celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2013. The company is the last of its breed – the only surviving British retreader, which benefited from the boom in UK car tyre retreading that took place in the 1990s. However, when we visited Jack Crangle and his daughter Debbie Cartwright at the company’s headquarters in Wem, Shropshire, we found a company that was looking to the future, investing in quality and looking to benefit from the increased interest in passenger retreading that is currently taking place in the UK. Historically, Kingpin has taken a traditional approach to the retread
market, using its established strong links within the wholesale
trade to service the market. However, according to
Crangle, the company is now changing its distribution profile by actively developing a network of active retailer customers as the retail market takes a renewed look at retreads.
“Our sales used to be mainly made up of large bulk orders but we are looking to develop a larger number of independent customers with smaller drops in the region of100 tyres or so”, explains
Debbie Cartwright, who is in charge of marketing at Kingpin. “We are actively looking for new customers, especially in specific areas like South Yorkshire. We are currently attracting a couple of new customers a week”. As part of its transformation, the company is also looking at new distribution channels like the internet, dealing with online retailers like Tyretraders.com and Tyres Direct Online.
“The message we wish to portray is that Kingpin is
and rally tyres, the latter of which has taken off significantly in recent months.
Kingpin also offers a good range of van tyres, another area, which has shown market growth recently. “The van market is an area of priority for us at the moment”, says Crangle. “We do most sizes in van tyres and offer an excellent range of patterns”.
One significant investment made by Kingpin in the last year has been 330 Euros spent on a new TRM Black Dragon builder. “The new machine offers new technology that really improves quality”, says Crangle. “It controls rubber exactly, throws out tyres that are too small and uses one operation for sidewalling, using strip instead of sidewall veneer, which, of course, saves money”.
A further big advantage is the fact that Kingpin can save on casings by being a collector itself. The company collects 110-140,000 casings a month, recycling them in its own shredding and crumbing facility. The
here to stay”, says Crangle, “even if we are changing tack en route. The market is picking up and we are now making 5,000 tyres a week, up from 3,000 a week last year, reflecting both the growth in the market and our change of emphasis”. In addition to changes in its distribution strategy, Kingpin is also actively improving its product mix by expanding into bigger, more profitable sizes. The company has expanded its range of 4x4 tyres and is also manufacturing run-flats
scrap goes to equestrian surface manufacturers and the steel is exported.
Kingpin is now keen to explain its new approach to the market and to display its newly expanded product ranges. In the light of this, the company exhibited in the retreading village during the Brityrex exhibition in Manchester.
26 Retreading Business