Stamford Tyres Unveils New Retail Concept
Novel TyreHub outlets bank on no-frills philosophy to woo customers
By Nick Syn
INDIFFERENT BUYERS ARE the hardest lot to market a product for, and the best way to go about it is to focus on price and convenience. Stamford Tyres, south-east Asia’s largest independent tyre and wheel distributor, is doing just that with its new chain of TyreHub outlets.
According to Ler Hwee Tiong, boss of Stamford Tyres’ North Asia business and the driving force behind the new retail concept, “Singapore should be a mature enough market and consumers are well-informed. They should also be mature enough to be given the option to choose between a simple product from TyreHub, or a more sophisticated product from a major manufacturer.”
TyreHub’s current tyre prices? Well, these start from the double-take-inducing figure of $38 per piece. And the reason that the company can afford to charge such prices is due to the fact that TyreHub focuses almost exclusively on what Mr Ler calls, “third-tier manufacturers”. These are commodity tyres sourced directly from manufacturers in Japan, Russia and India, manufacturers whose products are commonly shunned by traditional retailers.
“At the moment consumers are faced with taking up a major brand or just leaving the market,” continues Mr Ler. “If you don’t want to spend so much and you’re just a simple user then you don’t really need to go for a major brand.”
Mr Ler doesn’t see TyreHub cannibalising market share, after all Stamford itself carries several premium tyre brands. “We’re expanding the market segment, actually, we should not even cannibalise, if we do that it means we’re handling it wrongly.”
“One of the main challenges for TyreHub is to attract a whole new type of customer. If we have return customers we should try to channel them back to Stamford,” he continues. The company estimates that this new type of customer could account for as many as 2,000 tyre sales a month.
According to Mr Ler, “traditionally a tyre shop sells about 200 tyres a month, this means that there is potentially room for 10 TyreHub outlets here.”
The next step will see TyreHub outlets including services like wheel-balancing and alloy wheel retailing. However, Mr Ler is adamant that his company’s no-frills philosophy still applies, “we will be very specific, targeting only say the Nissan Sunny or Toyota Corolla owner. We don’t intend to sweep the market.”
“In fact, things are probably heading in the direction of packages,” hints Mr Ler. This means that you could turn up for new tyres, and have new rims as well thrown into the deal. Not a bad idea, that. And that’s not all, according to Mr Ler, Stamford is seriously considering the possibility of franchising the TyreHub concept.
“The franchising should come in hopefully within a year,” says Mr Ler. “It’s also about being a good corporate citizen, we open up options for people who want to set up a simple business, and who don’t have to throw too much capital into it,” he continues.
“We’re actively exploring how best to get people into this business. The tyre business is traditionally seen as dingy and dirty, and we want to help to change that perception,” states Mr Ler firmly.
Initially, three TyreHub outlets will be set up, located in Balestier, Thomson and Jalan Ahmad Ibrahim, customers can call the TyreHub hotline at 1800-8973-482 or visit the company’s website at www.tyrehub.com
