Kwik Fit, the UK’s biggest auto repairer and tyre retailer, has agreed a partnership which will see the brand expand into Italy.
The group founded in Edinburgh by Sir Tom Farmer, now Japanese-owned and based in Hertfordshire, will open 200 centres in Italy over the next decade.
Kwik-Fit has signed a franchise agreement with CDG-One, part of leading Italian tyre distribution group Segema.
Unlike Kwik Fit’s operations in the UK and the Netherlands where all the centres are company-owned, the Italian centres will all be franchises.
Kwik Fit will provide support including use of its UK training academies.
Kenji Murai, chief executive of Kwik Fit, said: “This partnership is a significant step in further developing Kwik Fit outside the UK as we believe the Italian market holds great potential for our brand.”
In addition to over 600 service centres and 150 mobile tyre-fitting vehicles in the UK, Kwik Fit has more than 180 service centres in the Netherlands, while in Hungary 11 centres are run by a franchisee under an agreement established in 2011. The company is also exploring the potential for further franchise networks throughout the EU, with a particular focus on central eastern and southern Europe.
Founder Sir Tom Farmer, 75, recently became the ninth recipient of the Edinburgh Award. The Leith-born entrepreneur turned Kwik-Fit into the world's largest independent tyre and automotive repair specialists with over 2,000 centres operating in 18 different countries. It lost its stock market listing in 1999 in a £1billion sale to Ford, netting Sir Tom around £80m.
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