Commercial Tyre Business has always had a great relationship with Giti Tire, and a few weeks ago, Richard Wilson Editor of Commercial Tyre Business spoke at length with Tony McHugh TBR Sales and Marketing Director for Giti UK and Ireland predominantly about the company’s mixed-service operations, before conversation turned to their new van product and the continued development and enhancement of their product portfolio.
McHugh: “We have seen things go back to how it was prior to COVID”
Since our last update from Giti had been pre-the CV Show 2019 and before the COVID-19 pandemic, we started on a well-known path discussing how Giti had faced up to the crisis as well looking at their strategy entering and coming out the other side of the pandemic. McHugh underlined that although Giti had been affected and that they were still working from home, the crisis has opened up new channels and ways of operating.
McHugh said, “We took action on the 17th of March last year (2020), when we decided to work from home, and we’ve not got back in the office yet. But the good thing is that it’s opened up new channels and new ways of operating.”
McHugh admitted that despite difficulties in the early period of the lockdown that from May onwards, the manufacturer started to see a ‘slow recovery’ in the demand for tyres, which resulted in demand actually recovering to Pre-COVID levels by late-summer. Part of the quick recovery could be explained by McHugh’s insight into how quickly fleets organised themselves to operate in a COVID environment, where social distancing and hygiene are top priorities.
“I think it was fleets that began organising themselves quickly saying, ‘how are we going to operate and how are we going to share cabs between drivers.’ That’s the feedback I got. Now they (the fleets) are just getting on with it. They have put everything in place for themselves to operate and we have seen things go back to how it was prior to COVID.”
