Nicolae Boroghina, a development manager with Goodyear Dunlop Tires Romania, says corporate car fleets hold significant potential in terms of boosting tyre sales.
Goodyear Dunlop Tires Romania, the domestic importer of US tyre manufacturer Goodyear, last year changed its development strategy, by embracing the multi-channel policy, which led to a change in the company”s business model.
“Last year, we embarked on a direct collaboration with new partners, namely retailers, car dealers and car fleets, with the later being practically the final consumers of our products and the most interesting segment,” says Nicolae Boroghina. Car fleets have more complex needs than retailers, which pushed Nicolae Boroghina to devise a programme destined to this category of consumers, generated by their demands.
“From our perspective, car fleets represent two categories of customers: corporate fleets as final consumers of tyres and firms doing fleet management, a category that is in full swing on the domestic market,” explained Nicolae Boroghina.
The policy change allowed the company to generate turnover worth more than 27m euros (100m RON) last year, up 17% from the previous year. The company”s income during the same period recorded an even higher jump, of 65%, to a level of 3.3 million euros. Goodyear Dunlop Tires Romania is working with companies such as Colgate-Palmolive, Henkel, Bosch group and Sindan. According to Goodyear representatives, the Romanian market is divided between major players in the domain of fleet management, including ALD Automotive, the BRD-SocGen unit specialising in operational leasing for cars and fleet management, Fleet Management Services, and leasing company Motoractive.
These are already on the list of companies Goodyear Dunlop Tires delivers premium tyres to. The company at present imports five brands from all the price segments: premium (Goodyear and Dunlop), medium (Fulda and Sava) and economic (Debica). “This new customer segment we”ve identified also asks for services, beside products,” Boroghina also said.
For the segment of fleets, Goodyear has created an online order system, called “tyre on-line system”. This system is available to all categories of customers, not only to car fleets.
Another associated service is the storage of tyres during the period they are not used. “Most fleets have a summer-winter policy for tyres, and this is how we got to the idea of setting up a so-called tyre hotel, a place where tyres are stored during the period they are not used,” specified Boroghina.
Goodyear has 25 partners in Romania on the retail segment, which in their turn deliver services to fleets on behalf of Goodyear. These include AutoZone, Tire Expert and Sama Service.
Goodyear Dunlop Tires Romania
* The domestic importer of US tyre producer Goodyear
* Last year modified its development policy, which led to a change in the company”s business model
* Last year derived turnover worth more than 27m euros, 17% higher year-on-year
* Net income rose by an even higher percentage, 65%, to a level of 3.3 million euros
* Currently imports 5 brands from all price segments
* Has 25 partners on retail segment.