There are two major difficulties in assessing the size of the uk tyre market. The first is the fact that the major tyre manufacturers have historically been notoriously secretive with regards to releasing any kind of market information into the public domain. The second reason, though, is the fact that even specialists in the tyre market are unabale, with any degree of accuracy, to provide a definitive figure on the size of the UK market. This is largely due to the major role played by tyre wholesalers and international tyre brokers, many of whom are reluctant to release figures, even to industry bodies.

The Tyre Industry Federation has established a Market Study Committee with a view to establishing a method of calculating accurate market size figures. However, this is still in a development phase.

Car Tyres

It is generally accepted that the UK replacement market for passenger tyres lies somewhere between 30 and 35 million units per annum. Official figures from BTMA/ITMA for 2006 show that sales for BTMA members (British based tyre manufacturers) were 15.8 million units whilst ITMA figures (officially imported tyres) were accounted for a further 5.5 milion units. The rest of the market is made up by unaffliated imports, parallel imports, part worn tyres and retreads.

The number of part worn tyres sold in the UK is generally estimated to be somewhere around the 3 million mark. Passnger retread sales have declined in recent years and are now only around 300,000 units.

The above figures show a significant change over the course of the past 10 years. The last figures published on this site dating from 2003 and psupplied by Continental showed BTMA figures at 19.1 million, official imports at 5.0 million and retreads at 1.0 million. The figures reflect the continued growth in budget new tyres from the Far East.