Happy Holidays from Tyrepac!

It is the Yuletide seasons- and Tyrepac would like to wish all a great holiday seasons, and have an even better year in 2013! Your support made us what we are, and we want to say a big THANK YOU!

Tyrepac Storage condition

Tyrepac's warehousing condition- goes a long way in preserving the original condition of tyres.

Tyre Aging/ Tyre Service life

There have been a lot of talk about "tyre's age", and even more fuss about getting tyres hot off the press (which may not always be practical).

See what some of the authorities say, and surprise, surprise- tyres are considered new from 3 years (from date of manufacture) to 6 years' old. This would naturally also be dependent on the storage conditions.

 

Germany

ADAC (2008) October 2008

The consumer should be informed if tyres are older than 3 years

 

BRV, WdK

Stored under proper conditions for several years’ means that a tyre, which has been stored properly for a period up to 5 years is considered as new tyre and is thus not compromised regarding its suitability for use. Selling and mounting such tyres is thus not unobjectionable from a technical standpoint

 

BRV

Provided that the future conditions of use are sufficiently known, this does not entirely preclude mounting tyres that are older than 5 years when first used

 

UK

BTMA

Recommended practice (2001)

Unused tyres should not be put into service if older than 6 years. All tyres should be replaced 10 years from the date of manufacture

 

Source: European Tyre and Rubber Manufacturers’ Association

Brussels, Dec 12, 2008

 

Thank you for your kind words!

Here are some of the great things customers say about Tyrepac. We work harder to hear these kind words of encouragement. A big thank you to all who took the effort to leave a note at our Customer Testimonial page.

Lam On Friday, September 14, 2012 in Singapore

Seamless transaction & service delivery exactly as they claim on the website. Ordered on Tuesday, delivered and fitted on Thursday at specified centre of choice (Shell PayaLebar). Friendly and efficient fitters charged exactly as specified, did not try to 'upsell' me anything. Whew! TyrePac has got the cheapest Conti CPC5s i could find trawling the local web for 3 days!

Mahyah On Thursday, September 13, 2012 in Singapore

Highly recommended. Excellent customer service from Tyrepac (Lily). Installer did good job too.

Cheok On Saturday, September 01, 2012 in Singapore

Price (incl fitting charges) was better than what most tyre shops quoted me. Very good service. After I put in the order, I got a call within a few minutes advising me to change fitter so that I don't have to wait so long! Delivery was quick. Ordered Friday PM, delivered Sat AM.

And many more, read them at http://www.tyrepac.com/Form/B2C/FCustomerTestimonial.aspx

Psss.. Tyrepac just adjusted prices

Log into www.tyrepac.com today, and you will notice that significant adjustments have been made to our prices.

We are serious about lowering our stock, so you should seriously consider your purchase before stock runs out.

Why Tyrepac for your next tyre change?

Nokian bags German tyre test wins

Nokian claims a pair of tyre test victories for its summer products; the Nokian Z G2 scored a win in the German Volkswagen and Audi specialist magazine “Gute Fahrt”, while the Nokian H took top honours in the “Auto Zeitung”, which is also published in Germany.

The Nokian Z G2 won the Gute Fahrt (3/2012 edition) summer tyre test, which included six size 225/45 R 17 W tyres, and received the top “very good“ grading. The Finnish tyre also received the “Gute Fahrt recommendation” and was praised for its good safety properties. “For the first time, a Nokian tyre wins a GF tyre test…and it completely deserves to, as the very balanced Finn manages to reach top marks not only for braking on wet surfaces, but also for rolling resistance,” the magazine commented.

“The Finn is mostly neutral to drive and free of load change reactions,” said Gute Fahrt. “It masters handling, offers great stability and good grip on wet surfaces, and achieves the best braking scores. Only longitudinal aquaplaning could be better. Comfort is good and rolling noise remains low. And as the icing on the cake, it provides the lowest rolling resistance. The frontrunner Nokian has 22 per cent less rolling resistance than the worst ranked tyres, meaning that it can save up to half a litre of fuel per 100 km compared to them.”

Nokian H

When Auto Zeitung held its summer tyre test, which included seven premium and one budget size 185/60 R 15 H tyre, it was the Nokian H’s turn to come up trumps. In its overall verdict, Auto Zeitung (6/2012 edition) extolled the tyre as follows: “A clear victory for Nokian H that not only provides excellent performance on wet surfaces, but is also fully convincing on dry road and in the rolling resistance test.”

Auto Zeitung also commented favourably about the tyre’s wet test results: “Fastest in handling, top-class for driving safety, and very strong in braking. The Finnish Nokian is a true professional on wet surfaces.” Remarks for dry road performance are summarised as follows: “The Nokian receives points for its low rolling resistance, it brakes strongly, and it is also quiet to drive. It grips well at the limit and always reacts predictably.”

Reported by "tyrepress.com"

Tyrepac Logo

The Tyrepac Logo

·         The Tyrepac logo is shaped like a “lighting”- signifying the speed Tyrepac works, as an online retailer.

·         It looks like a handshake as we bring together all major brands of tyres, with an extensive listing of locations for fitting, in an online store.

·         It is shaped spherically, like wrapping a globe, to signify how Tyrepac as an online retailer works globally, and has ambition to be a global online retailer.

2011 was a successful year for Delticom

2011 was a successful year for Delticom. Annual revenues increased by 14.4% to € 480.0 million and EBIT by 11.2% to € 52.9 million. With 11.0% the EBIT margin was just slightly lower than in the exceptionally strong prior year. In total the consolidated net profit amounted to € 36.0 million or € 3.04 per share – after a prior-year result of € 32.6 million an increase of 10.4%. Delticom has once again been able to continue the string of revenues and earnings increases, unbroken since the company's founding in 1999.

Nokian tyre top in German Auto Bild tyre test

Nokian was recently voted top in German Auto Bild tyre test.

In a selection of 50 tyre designs spanning major brands and relative unknown, Nokian Z G2 came out top for best overall performance.

225/45R17 tyre size was selected to undergo aquaplaning, handling, circular lap timing in the wet, dry and wet braking, drive by noise, ride comfort, and Fuel Economy.

Nokian top in German "Auto Bild" Magazine tyre test

Tyre's Date of Manufacture

Date of manufacture
You may or may not know; tyres are marked with their date of manufacture on its sidewall (See picture). It is coded as week and year of manufacture, example 0109 would mean the tyre was manufactured in Week 01 of Year 2009, and similarly 0111 would mean week 1 of 2011.

Shelf life of tyres
Naturally, the next question would be the shelf life of tyres. Most major manufacturers give their brand of tyres 4 to 5 years shelf life- meaning a tyre is considered “fresh” to be fitted onto a car as long as done within this 4 to 5 years from date of manufacture. And the tyres fitted will usually be granted a “limited tyre warranty”. This limited warranty is also usually up to a tyre’s useful tyre life- in many instances up to a remaining tread depth of 1.6mm. This may in some countries be regulated to be more than 1.6mm remaining thread depth.

Limited warranty
Finland brand “Nokian” for example gives limited warranty for three (3) years from date of purchase or five (5) years from the manufacture of a tyre, whichever is earliest. In Nokian’s case, this limited warranty applies where the tread depth of a tyre meets the requirements of the vehicular laws of the country where the tyre was sold. Manufacturers usually cease warranty beyond 1.6mm remaining tread depth (for passenger car tyres). It is therefore safe to assume that tyres must not be worn beyond this marker.

It is a limited warranty because once a tyre is fitted, there are many reasons beyond or totally unrelated to “manufacturing related” defects. Manufacturers will not be liable for a warranty of a tyre should any of the following occur:

a. Tyres are damaged by road hazards, fire, accidents, corrosion, or other acts of God
b. Tyres are of normal wear and tear
c. Tyres were misuse for example via kerbing, running over foreign objects and potholes.
d. Tyres damaged from improper fitting, improper inflation pressure, faulty rims, negligence, alteration or repairs
e. Use in motor racing or exceptional use
f. Tyre noise from uneven wear

Compensation of tyres
It is understood that the “failure” of tyres due to manufacturing defects, particularly for major brands are extremely low- 1 in 10,000 tyres perhaps, and usually these “failures” are of very negligible consequences. But should compensation of tyres be allowed, it is always limited to the “unrealized benefit” from the tyre in use- this simply means compensation are pro-rated or calculated based on unused thread depth of up to 1.6mm. Most passenger car tyres are of 7mm to 8mm thread depth when new.

How old is too old?
A tyre left in the sun for a year is going to be very different in character as compared to one stored in an indoor condition. It is however not easy to change the characteristic of a tyre once it is manufactured. For a fact, most passenger car tyres are cured at a temperature in the region of 130-140 Degree Celsius for about 30 minutes to form its permanent elastic character- and it is safe to assume that it may take something equivalent or close to change its character further.
Given that most motorists cover an average of 25,000km a year, and tyres these days are usually worn out at about 50,000km- it is therefore safe to say that a tyre being up to 3 years old will be considered safe to be installed- assuming the manufacture gives a 5 years’ warranty.

Should dates of manufacture be the same for all tyres changed?
It may be unnecessary for tyres to be exactly the same manufacturing date since some common tyre sizes are manufactured almost 365 days a year- which means to say that the same tyre may come from the same manufacturing line, from the same factory and potentially be a few months apart when warehoused and delivered to its consumers.

All things said, the manufactured date of a tyre may be important, but nothing beats regular inspection, proper tyre inflation pressure and most of all- safe driving habits!

Tyrepac turns 3 in February- Celebrate with us!

We turn 3 in February. Best prices we have offered to date for the month of Feb. Stock limited. Look out from 8pm 31st January 2012!

Tyrepac wishes you a great year of the Dragon!

Delticom publishes preliminary figures for FY 2011

Hanover, 19 January 2012 – For Delticom (German Securities Code (WKN) 514680, ISIN DE0005146807, stock market symbol DEX), Europe's leading online tyre dealer, 2011 was again a successful year. According to today's preliminary figures, revenues in the fiscal year increased by 14.4% to € 480.0 million and EBIT by 9.6% to € 52.2 million. Earnings per share grew 8.4% to € 2.99.

Q411: Successful quarter despite mild winter The harsh 2010 winter had resulted in a superior business performance for the European tyre trade. Last season, though, the business was hurt by very mild winter weather conditions. At present, industry experts believe that winter tyre sales have dropped substantially below prior-year levels.

After taking the new warehouse into operations in Q211, Delticom stocked up ahead of the season. As a result, the company was able to offer attractive prices to its customers throughout the fourth quarter. Despite the very strong base, Delticom sold more tyres than in Q410. Quarterly revenues increased by 12.1% to € 182.3 million (Q410: € 162.6 million).

While the 2010 winter had seen massive price hikes driven by market-wide scarcities, Q411 prices developed in a more orderly fashion, as expected. Consequently, gross margin (trade margin ex other operating expenses) retracted to a less inflated 28.4% (Q410: 30.6%). The Q411 EBIT margin came in at 13.2% (Q410: 15.2%).

Fiscal year 2011
Revenues. Over the course of the year, selling prices developed favourably, the mix was stable and volumes were fairly satisfactory. All in all, Delticom was able to generate revenues of € 480.0 million, a plus of 14.4% from prior-year's € 419.6 million. Revenues in the E-Commerce division were up year-onyear by 12.9%, from € 403.7 million to € 455.6 million. The revenues of the Wholesale division lifted by 53.4% to € 24.4 million, after prior-year revenues of € 15.9 million.

Gross margin. The cost of goods sold increased in the reporting period by 16.3%, from € 300.1 million in 2010 to € 349.1 million. Delticom generated 2011 a greater share of revenues with own inventories, compared to the previous years. In an environment of rising purchasing prices, the company was therefore able to cushion the hikes by early purchasing to a good extent. Thanks to the increased volume Delticom also benefited from economies of scale in the procurement function. Still, the full-year gross margin came down from 28.5% to 27.3%, primarily due to the closing winter quarter.

Personnel expenses. Thanks to the highly efficient operating workflows, the company has been able to keep staff levels low in 2011 despite increasing transaction volumes. In the reporting period on average 116 staff members were employed at Delticom (previous year: 101). Personnel expenses amounted to € 7.2 million (previous year: € 6.8 million). Compared to the prior-year period, the personnel expenses ratio (staff expenditures as percentage of revenues) came down slightly from 1.6% to 1.5%.

Other operating expenses. Overall the other operating expenses totalled € 77.7 million in the past financial year, an increase of 11.8% over the prior-year value of € 69.5 million.
Among the other operating expenses, transportation costs is the largest line item. It grew in line with the increase in business volume, from € 34.5 million by +8.5% to € 37.5 million. The share of transportation costs against revenues declined from 8.2% in 2010 to 7.8% in 2011. The reason for this was the significant price effect in the revenues for the last financial year. In addition, economies of scale arising from the centralised warehouse infrastructure helped to further drive down costs.

In the reporting period, costs for advertising totalled € 9.9 million, after € 9.0 million in 2010. This represents a marketing expense ratio (marketing expenses as a percentage of revenues) of 2.1%, flat year-on-year.

Depreciation. In line with our gradual warehouse capacity expansion and the parallel investments into warehousing infrastructure, depreciation rose by 62.3% from € 1.3 million in 2010 to € 2.1 million. The low absolute level of depreciation underlines the low capital intensity of Delticom's business.

Earnings performance. EBIT improved from € 47.6 million by 9.6% to € 52.2 million. Due to the extraordinarily margin-strong closing quarter 2010, the management had expected a deterioration of year-on- year profitability for 2011. In the end, the EBIT margin showed only minor decline from 11.3% to 10.9%. The continually low Euro money market rates led to flat financial income of € 0.1 million. This was balanced by almost the same amount of financial expenses arising from provisions as well as interest costs for the short-term utilisation of credit lines.

The expenditure for income taxes was € 16.8 million (previous year: € 15.1 million). The tax rate was 32.2% (2010: 31.6%). Consolidated net income for 2011 grew from € 32.6 million to € 35.4 million. This corresponds to earnings per share (EPS) of € 2.99 (undiluted, 2010: € 2.76), a step-up of 8.4%.

Working capital. From an exceptionally low prior-year base of € 52.2 million which was affected by market-wide shortages, inventories in 2011 increased to € 106.5 million. As of 31.12.2011 this equates to 64.0% of the total assets of € 166.5 million. The company is well positioned for the upcoming summer business. Accounts payable grew at lower rate of 29.0% year-on-year, from € 53.6 million to € 69.1 million. Delticom management intends to continue its policy to pay off a significant part of the liabilities ahead of schedule. Taken together with accounts receivable of € 10.1 million (31.12.2010: € 10.9 million), the net working capital amounted to € 43.6 million at year-end (31.12.2010: € 1.8 million).

Cash flow and liquidity position. Due to more funds being tied up in working capital, the operating cash flow from ordinary business activities was € –9.6 million (2010: € 51.7 million). In 2011 Delticom made investments of € 8.4 million into property, plant and equipment, most of it into the infrastructure of the new warehouse, which was taken into operations in Q2. With a year-end liquidity of € 22.2 million (31.12.2010: € 67.8 million) and access to currently unused credit lines, the company has enough funds to grow the business in the months ahead.

Outlook
Over the preceding months, economists have gradually revised growth estimates for Europe. The general expectation is that austerity measures and rising unemployment is going to depress consumer sentiment further. Industry experts believe that the European tyre trade will not remain unaffected.

Independent of those short-term developments, the share of online sales in the tyre market continues to be comparatively low. More and more drivers are turning to the Internet in search of lower-priced alternatives. Delticom as the leading online tyre dealer will be able to capitalise on this trend. Even for a scenario where market and weather do not improve over 2011, Delticom management regards a revenue growth of 10% as achievable. Assuming margins at prior-year levels, earnings should grow in line with revenues.

The full report for the fiscal year 2011 will be published on 22 March 2012 within the "Investor Relations" section of the website www.delti.com.