Bridgestone Champions Programme Builds Retail Skills

Bridgestone has completed the latest intake of its Champions programme, bringing together 12 representatives from tyre retailers and wholesalers for three days of retail, technical and customer-service training. The initiative, now in its fourth year, is designed to help customer-facing staff improve service standards as vehicle technology becomes more complex.

Building confidence in tyre retail

The latest group included representatives from Merityre, Tanvic Tyres, ETS and GT Wholesale. The programme covered relationship building, retail marketing, communication skills, telephone best practice and face-to-face selling.

For tyre retailers, the relevance is practical. Depot staff are increasingly expected to explain tyre choice, driving requirements, vehicle technology and safety considerations clearly to motorists. That places greater value on structured training for sales teams, reception staff and customer advisers, not only technicians.

Mark Fereday, Senior Trade Marketing Manager, North Region at Bridgestone, said the programme was about more than product knowledge. He said Bridgestone wanted participants to leave with “the confidence and knowledge to make a real difference” in their own businesses.

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Future mobility enters the training agenda

The final day took delegates to the Delphi Academy in Warwick, where the group received insight into electric vehicles, hybrid technology and advanced diagnostics. Delphi says its academy training covers areas including EV, hybrid, hydrogen, diagnostics and other vehicle systems, with IMI-accredited courses also available.

This gives the programme wider relevance than a conventional retail workshop. Tyre depots and wholesalers are having to respond to vehicles with higher weight, instant torque, driver assistance systems and increasingly connected maintenance requirements.

Tyre News has recently covered this shift through its reporting on Bridgestone’s Fleet Care programme, which integrates telematics and tyre sensor data to support predictive maintenance decisions. The publication has also reported on Bridgestone’s Potenza Sport EVO with ENLITEN Technology, which is positioned around wet grip, rolling resistance, mileage and EV readiness.

Customer advice remains central

Participants said the programme would support day-to-day customer conversations. Dan Mould from Merityre described the experience as positive and said the team would share what it had learned to improve the customer experience.

Joanne Harrod from ETS, who works on reception at her depot, said the course had given her knowledge to offer more informed recommendations based on individual driving requirements.

That point matters for tyre retailers. As product ranges become more specialised, the first conversation with a customer can shape safety, satisfaction and repeat business. Training front-of-house staff can therefore be as important as investing in workshop equipment.

Collaboration across the trade

Bridgestone also highlighted the value of bringing people from different businesses together. Fereday said collaboration had again stood out, with participants sharing ideas and best practice despite representing separate networks.

For the tyre trade, that peer-to-peer element may be one of the programme’s stronger features. Independent retailers and wholesalers face many of the same challenges around recruitment, retention, technical knowledge and customer trust. Structured training can help businesses build consistency without removing local service culture.

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Tagged with: Bridgestone Champions programme, tyre retail training, automotive retail skills, EV tyre advice, hybrid vehicle training, vehicle diagnostics, tyre customer service, Merityre, Tanvic Tyres, ETS, GT Wholesale, Delphi Academy

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