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local tyre news
HT Group: Balance Between Tradition and Innovation
HT Group turns 70 this year. Before the start of the grand anniversary dinner celebration, The Tyreman grabbed some precious time with Director Terence Tay to learn
about what had driven the Group’s business success over the years, his experience and new developments.
“The sustainability of a family-owned business is underpinned by family values. These values have united all of us and helped us to stay consistent in our decision making and strategies. decisions. We ensure that every family member involved in the business have his or her clear role and responsibility. For in- stance, I am responsible for the tyre business in the Group. While other family members could give me suggestions, I would be the one making the major decisions for the business. I believe it is these strong family values that brought us to where we are today.”
Twenty years ago, Tay took the helm from his dad. When he was 12 years old, he started working part time in the warehouse, “I majored in Information Technology (IT). I graduated in 2003 the family business. It was a learning cycle for me. I started by visiting dealers and customers to understand their needs and requirements as well as the market. Even without the outbreak,
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I am pretty sure that I would still come back to work in the busi- ness. Not just me; other family members would also do that due to the strong family bond.”
Then the opportunity came, he continued, which allowed the company to expand from the tyre sector to the lubricant industry. HT Lubricant, he pointed out, was established in 2007 as the
- senger and commercial vehicles to industrial equipment. Cur- - sia’s market. HT Group today is not just a tyre distributor, with tyres accounting for 70 per cent of its total business and the remaining 30 per cent from lubricants and batteries.”
Tay stressed the importance of developing a balance between innovation and tradition to preserve the Group’s legacy and fam- ily values. “Innovation helps the company to stay relevant and remain competitive in the market. Therefore, it continues to in- vest in technology to improve its business. Currently, the compa- ny has a tech team that consists of three programmers and two in the market could not meet the company’s requirements, the in-house tech team has developed an on-line sales portal for dealers. Having its own online sales portal allows the company to have better control of the software, collect dealers’ data and study their behaviour.”
New developments and bridging generation gap
According to him, the company’s online sales portal is very user friendly and could be accessed through laptops and mobile phones. About 40 per cent of its dealers are now using the online sales portal that was introduced two years ago.
“It is very convenient. Dealers could check the tyre inventory status and order tyres online without calling the sales people. However, there is a dedicated sales team that handles online tyre sales and is always willing to lend a helping hand whenever dealers encounter issues while using the portal or are unsure how to use it,” Tay added.
A new feature still under development, he pointed out, was the check delivery status function that provides live updates and track tyre delivery in real time. Additionally, he hopes to add lu- bricants and batteries to the sales portal by the end of the year.
“The next project in the company’s pipeline is to re-energise its tyre retail business that has stagnate a bit,” he said.
- sia, seven in Singapore and two truck centres in Johor.
