NTDA Tyre & Fast Fit Awards 2011

The NTDA Tyre & Fast-Fit Awards 2011 reached their exciting climax at the Association's Annual Dinner, held at the Hilton Metropole Hotel, NEC, Birmingham on 20th October, when the names of the winners were revealed to a packed audience.

In seven years the TAFF Awards have become the 'must have' accolade for all sectors of the tyre industry – a fact that was underlined by the obvious delight of the winners and the disappointment of those who didn't quite make it.

The unsuccessful finalists can hold their heads up high, as it is a great achievement and a mark of quality customer service to be chosen among the nominated final few. However, there can only be one winner and this year's contest saw the usual, fierce competition and some very close results. So without further ado, here are the winners.

The Winners

---

Tyre Manufacturer of the Year

This prize has been won by a number of companies in the past – would we see a new name on the honours list this year?

Winner: Pirelli Tyres UK

The answer to the above question was "yes" as Pirelli were named winners for the first time. Undoubtedly the company's move into supplying tyres to Formula 1 did a great deal to raise its public profile, while among the tyre trade, products such as the low-rolling resistance Cinturato P1 made a favourable impression. Pirelli also introduced the Seal Inside system, whereby a tyre that has suffered a puncture can seal itself.

Also nominated:

Bridgestone UK Lyd
Continental Tyre Group
Hankook Tyre UK
Michelin

---

Tyre Wholesaler of the Year

A host of familiar names made up the wholesaler finalists. So close was the nomination process that we had six finalists, instead of the usual five.

Winner: Stapleton's (Tyre Services) Ltd

Stapleton's stocks over 1.25 million tyres, from major manufacturers' products to private and exclusive brands – tyres to suit all budgets. Delivery is via a 275-strong vehicle fleet, working out of 17 locations nationwide.

It has been quite a year for Stapleton's, with the acquisition of NE Wholesale and parent company Itochu buying Kwik-Fit – winning their second TAFF Award in a row in the wholesaler category was the icing on the cake.

Also nominated:

B.I.T.S.
Bond International
Grouptyre
Micheldever Tyre Services
Viking International

---

Tyre & Aftermarket Equipment Supplier of the Year

A mixture of familiar names and one or two newcomers fought it out in what is always a keenly-contested category.

Winner: Autogem Motor Concepts LLP

It was one of the newcomers that walked off with the Award – Autogem has been extremely visible to the tyre trade, introducing its TPMS programme. This consists not only of products and tools, but also a top quality training programme and unrivalled technical support.

Tyre dealers will see more and more TPMS business as runflat numbers increase – Autogem allows them to turn it from an unknown quantity into a profit opportunity.

Also nominated:

Apaseal Ltd
Euro Car Parts
Harvie Tyres ltd
Rema Tio Top Automotive

---

Industry Advertising Campaign

This category was sponsored by our media partner Tyres & Accessories magazine. Continental were aiming for their third win in a row in this category but the standard this year was exceptional.

Winner: Hankook Tyre UK - Be one with it

Hankook's global advertising campaign (Be one with it) featured extreme sports such as base jumping with specially-designed wing suits. The campaign – aimed at promoting Hankook as a premium manufacturer - focussed on the driver's feelings of 'being one' with the tyre and road. The message was that confidence in your equipment brings out the best performance and that this was as true for tyres and driving as it is for sports.

Also nominated:

Continental Tyre Group – Conti 4x4 Trophy
Infinity Tyres Europe Ltd – Infinity DNA
Michelin Tyre Plc – The Right Tyre (Phase 3 – Longevity)
Pirelli Tyres – Formula 1 theme

---

Environmental Award

None of last year's finalists made it this time and we had three new tyre manufacturers, one retreader and one waste collection company.

Winner: Vellco Tyre Control

This was Vellco's fourth win in the Environmental category and a tribute to its achievements in reducing the impact of its operations in the automotive recycling sector.

Impressively, Vellco has achieved carbon neutrality without having to offset CO2 generation by planting trees. An example is the use of a 'tripling' machine that inserts one casing inside another and a third inside that – reducing shipping costs and energy expenditure by two thirds.

Also nominated:

Bandvulc Tyres Ltd
Continental Tyre Group
Michelin Tyre Plc
Yokohama HPT Ltd

---

Innovation Award

This award differs from the previous categories in that a panel of industry experts examines the relative merits of products and services that companies have themselves submitted as being innovative. The sheer variety of entries meant that this year the task was especially difficult.

Winner: Ram-rod Tire-Safe safety inflation cage

The Ram-rod Tire Safe safety cage will effectively contain the explosive failure of up to a 22.5" rim CV tyre and will contain and direct harmlessly the explosive release that occurs when a tyre carcass or sidewall suffers catastrophic failure.

The steel safety enclosure will withstand a high energy impact from an unconstrained rim and carcass and will contain the high pressure shock wave, releasing it safely in a controlled way.

The Ram rod Tyre Safety Cage is imported into the UK by Rema Tip Top Automotive UK Ltd, for more information click here

Also nominated:

Apaseal – Corghi Artiglio Master
Autogem – TPMS Programme
Continental Tyres – ContiEcocontact 5.
Goodyear – Eagle F1 Asymmetric 2
Toyota – Tyre Awareness point of sale programme.

Congratulations to all the winners and commiserations to those who didn't make it. There's always next year!

---

Tyre Centre of the Year

A brand new award for 2011 was introduced to encourage tyre and fast-fit depots to strive to attain the highest standards of customer service – the 'Tyre Centre of the Year' Award.

Retailers were invited to nominate one of their centres – only one centre per company to take part in a mystery shopping exercise, the results of which were scrutinised and marked. The mystery shopping was carried out by Encircle; a company with vast experience in this field and the scrutinising was by the NTDA's Aftermarket Suppliers Group.

Initially, 30 centres were put forward and completed a comprehensive entry form, detailing facilities available etc. Each centre was telephoned by a mystery shopper on two separate occasions and marked on a number of criteria, including attitude, speed of response, politeness and many more.

Eventually a short list of the top five highest scorers was drawn up and these were visited by a professional mystery shopper with a vehicle that had a number of faults. These were identical for each centre and included misalignment, a tyre that was borderline legal and two tyres that were significantly under-inflated. The shopper said that they were about to go on a long trip and wanted the tyres checked because they were experiencing handling problems.

Incidentally, the 25 centres that didn't make the short list were all sent a detailed analysis of their performance so they could see the areas that needed to be worked on.

Of the final five, one centre's performance clearly stood out from the rest, so it's congratulations to the winner of the inaugural Tyre Centre of the Year Award – HiQ Pilgrim Tyres, Plymouth.

The other finalists were:

HiQ Justin Roberton - Helston
ATS Euromaster - Aldridge
HiQ South Cheshire Tyre& Exhaust Ltd - Crewe
Merityre Specialists Ltd - Wallington

---