Major Australian tyre retailer on brink of collapse – report

Up to 700 jobs across the country are at risk following reports tyre retail giant Beaurepaires has been unable to find a new owner.

According to a report from News.com.au, the sale of Beaurepaires – one of Australia's oldest and largest tyre dealers – has fallen through, with an estimated 100 retail and fleet stores and nine distribution centres potentially about to close.

Beaurepaires is one of the retail arms of Goodyear Dunlop Tyres Australia, owned by US-based Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, which told shareholders it was looking to move to a "third-party distribution and retail sales model instead of a company-owned approach," in Australia and New Zealand to increase profits.

The US tyre giant has also revealed the Dunlop brand has been put up for sale.

It's unclear what impact these changes will have on the Supercars series (formerly known as V8 Supercars) given Dunlop is the official tyre of the category – as well as the naming-rights sponsor of the second-tier Super2 category – while Beaurepaires is the official tyre retail sponsor of Supercars.

According to a report from motorsport news outlet Auto Action in March 2022, there had been an earlier plan to switch branding of the control tyres in the Supercars series from Dunlop to Goodyear which never eventuated – though this was blamed on insufficient production capacity at Goodyear's European factory at the time.

MORE: Tyre news

Rival Bob Jane Corporation – the owner of Bob Jane T-Marts – was considering buying the Beaurepaires network, but had instead opted to purchase the "select few [stores] that actually make money," an anonymous source told News.com.au.

It's understood a handful of local Beaurepaires stores have rebranded as a Dunlop Super Dealer or Goodyear Autocare.

While the transformation to a new business model is expected to cost Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company up to $US65 million ($AU99 million) in 2024, the corporation says profits should increase by as much as $US55 million ($AU84 million) annually by 2025.