Page 119 - It's a Rum Life Book 3 "Ivy House Tales 1970 to 1984"

The difference in height of the mixer body on the back of the lorry caused by the lorry
depositing its load put the vehicle a good two inches above the level of the lintel!
We have been entertained on many occasions with the antics of this pair trying to resolve
this problem which was eventually sorted by simply letting some air out of the lorry tyres!
The whole building had to be racked then, so the tyres could be stored cleanly and kept in
good order. The close proximity of Boston dock and its immense stocks of imported timber
solved this problem with the aid of a contact in the trade.

UNIROYAL
Uniroyal were one of the larger European based tyre manufacturers with existing factories
in France, Belgium and Germany. They had recently built a new factory just outside
Edinburgh and had a further factory in the west of England producing “Treadaire” carpet
underlay.
Each factory produced part of the complete range of Uniroyal tyres but all our stock control
was administered by Edinburgh.

Because of our unique experience within the tyre trade, actually having run a successful
distribution system for the no 2 Tyre company in the World and unlike other UK based
stocking points, we were allowed to control our own stock levels.
I had a constant battle from day one to maintain sufficiently high stock levels to supply the
demand of clients locally. My argument was that primarily being a very rural area, if we did
not have a full range of stock the clients would not buy or even contact us to try.
Uniroyal produced a premium product and the range covered every size and type of car
and commercial tyre but not agricultural. My argument was that if we had better levels of
stock than our competitors, then we could gain vital trade by just having that stock.

TYRE TRADE
Readers might understand the intricacies of the tyre trade a little better if I explain that at
this time virtually all first line premium tyres were about the same price and retailers
boosted their purchasing terms by quarterly discounts on volume of purchase. So the more
they bought the better the terms.

This counted for all our clients but of course the clients who had negotiated preferred
terms for larger turnover started at a higher discount.
Fossitt & Thorne were our largest single account but all other retailers in the region were
encouraged to use Uniroyal as much as possible by the local Uniroyal salesman.

Fossitt and Thorne demanded quick service, something Fred Popham and Harry Thorne
had developed over the years.
F & T depots knew that big stocks were available over the whole range of products, these
stocks were relatively local and they could get them quickly.

This “Fred Popham” formula had led to Lincolnshire being one of Firestone’s most
profitable branches in the UK. F & T turnover with Firestone in the good times was in
excess of £9 million pounds p.a. This was in the late 1960’s.
Harry knew I would endeavour to keep this up with the Uniroyal product and we gradually
developed a huge turnover.

ECYB was only paid on tyres moved. We earned nothing for storage and dusting them

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