Wholesale Tire Distributors, one of Canada’s fastest-growing distributors, will unveil the next phase of its growth strategy this month, the company has announced.
In business since 1994, Wholesale Tire distributes tires to independent tire retailers, new car dealers and corporate fleet customers. The company is privately owned and is directly affiliated with four Tire Depot retail outlets and 14 Tire Choice associate stores serving central Ontario.
Its aggressive new program will include new graphic identification and signage, a Web presence, incentive program and an innovative new local marketing tool for dealers, the company says. The program will touch all facets of the company’s business, including its internal operations, Tire Choice associate store network and its commercial distribution business.
Wholesale Tire has already hired eight new personnel to help propel the new growth program and will add five more staff in the near future – part of a campaign to build out its associate network from 14 to 40 stores by the end of 2012 and extend the company’s record of double-digit growth through 2014.
“To be successful in the future, it’s not going to be enough to bring inventory in one door and ship it out the other. We have to provide our customers something more – something that helps their businesses succeed,” explains Jonathan Karelse, vice president, corporate development and strategic planning.
“In our case, that means providing our customers a host of new value-added services like a Web-based tool to help assess their local market based on vehicle population, type and age. It means creating an effective, transparent incentive system for counter staffs that not only reward them for learning about product but for moving it at retail. And it means a heightened commitment to service with more and faster delivery schemes,” Karelse says.
The new graphic identification will begin to appear next week, and the Wholesale Tire corporate and Tire Choice websites will come on stream in mid-January. The new local market assessment tool will be previewed to dealers next week.
The new hires and internal promotions will be used to establish a new organizational structure built around enhanced service and value-added support for customers, Karelse says. Personnel changes include the addition of a senior logistics manager, customer service personnel, account managers and territory managers, and a pricing analyst. Additional senior IT and finance resources have been added to the management team.
The company also will build an internal creative marketing and promotion resource that will be made available to its retail and associate network as well as selected national accounts for advertising, promotion and special event support, Karelse adds.
The new program follows the August announcement that Wholesale Tire had acquired a 50,000-square-foot warehouse to serve Hamilton and southwestern Ontario.
