Have I seen the tire industry quite so disorganized. Bought tires from one distributor for over 25 years. Had Cooper and Cooper house brands, as well as Kelly Springfield and some of their house brands. For all those years had consistent supply. Now it seems every week order will only about 75% fill. Rest are out of stock or on backorder. This company has allways seemed well run, with high focus on customer satisfaction and order fill rates.
After a while, missing part of my inventory began to cut into my bottom line, plus, if you price a tire just a bit too high, a customer will usually check back when they have another need, if you tell them you don't have a source or no idea when product will be available, they often write you off as unprofessional.
To augument supply I've started buying from the largest independent supplier in the state, also one of the larger independents natonwide, "American Tire and Wheel Distributors" with Gdyr,FS/[censored] (yea, I think Bridgestone should be sensored too, but just not for usig their initials),Mich/BFG/Uni, and others. With Kumho as their prefered house brand. NOW,WOW ho'od a thunk it,,,,their fill rate is no better than 75& either! Now I'm balancing supplier against supplier based of availability as well as price. What I've got as a top-tier tire this week may be something else entirely next week. And the bottom of the price level stuff most customers now want is a total jumble of product, as both suppliers can only spot buy a container of junk here and another container there. Sooo, I've started telling customers "here it is, it's cheap, it's new, now you know as much about this particular tire as I do". If it's cheap enough, they still buy it. Must be hitting price points faily well, as probably 2 of 3 call in price checks show up.
Used tire sales are still increasing, partly because word of mouth is reaching more, and I've kept a decent supply.
Every tire line is saying prie increase every 3 months, but some seem more frequent.
Bob
After a while, missing part of my inventory began to cut into my bottom line, plus, if you price a tire just a bit too high, a customer will usually check back when they have another need, if you tell them you don't have a source or no idea when product will be available, they often write you off as unprofessional.
To augument supply I've started buying from the largest independent supplier in the state, also one of the larger independents natonwide, "American Tire and Wheel Distributors" with Gdyr,FS/[censored] (yea, I think Bridgestone should be sensored too, but just not for usig their initials),Mich/BFG/Uni, and others. With Kumho as their prefered house brand. NOW,WOW ho'od a thunk it,,,,their fill rate is no better than 75& either! Now I'm balancing supplier against supplier based of availability as well as price. What I've got as a top-tier tire this week may be something else entirely next week. And the bottom of the price level stuff most customers now want is a total jumble of product, as both suppliers can only spot buy a container of junk here and another container there. Sooo, I've started telling customers "here it is, it's cheap, it's new, now you know as much about this particular tire as I do". If it's cheap enough, they still buy it. Must be hitting price points faily well, as probably 2 of 3 call in price checks show up.
Used tire sales are still increasing, partly because word of mouth is reaching more, and I've kept a decent supply.
Every tire line is saying prie increase every 3 months, but some seem more frequent.
Bob
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