ALVANCE Aluminium Wheels (“Wheels”), France’s only producer of aluminium wheels has won a contract to supply Tyre-Line Original Equipment Ltd – the leader in wheel and tyre assemblies for the UK and European caravan and leisure vehicle markets.

The contract, which will see Wheels supply Tyre-Line with over 35,000 aluminium wheels per year in sizes ranging from 14 to 16 inches, is the first such deal for the Chateauroux-based company to produce wheels outside of the auto sector.

Headquartered in Northamptonshire, Tyre-Line prides itself on supplying its customers with the best quality, value for money products in the market and was looking for a supplier that could design, test and produce wheels to automotive quality specifications.

The quality of wheel assemblies for the leisure market is a top priority for Tyre-Line as while wheels for caravans are typically smaller than those on cars, their load capacity is significantly greater as the weight of the caravan is often carried by two wheels instead of four.

Speaking of the contract, Managing Director of Tyre-Line Edward Musson said:

“Having suppliers delivering quality-assured products via a robust supply chain is of paramount importance to us, so we were only too happy to partner with Wheels to develop a range of products to our stringent design and quality specifications. We partner with our own customers to design wheels that will give their caravans and leisure vehicles an individual styling so it was imperative for us to find a supplier that had design expertise and the adaptability and flexibility to produce and ship our orders quickly. Wheels has all of that in spades and took to the task really quickly, even though it was outside their core business, and have absolutely delivered a great product.”

The aluminium used at Wheels is produced by sister company ALVANCE Aluminium Dunkerque, the largest smelter in Europe and also one of the greenest as the carbon content of its finished product is amongst the lowest on the market.

Mr Musson continued:

“The fact that Wheels also produce a greener product shouldn’t be underestimated – customers in every sector are more and more interested in the sustainability of their purchases and so to find a supplier that can meet our clients’ growing expectations in this regard is a great advantage”.

The contract has been such a success that over the next 12 months Tyre-Line is looking to partner with Wheels for assemblies across all sizes for the Motorhome sector which could see overall volumes increase to around 50,000 per year.

Managing Director of ALVANCE Aluminium Wheels Roberto Avelli said:

“We are delighted to be partnering with Tyre-Line – a partnership that marks not only a new client for us but a new sector as well. The technical and load-bearing dynamics of these wheels are different from what we normally produce but our designers and technicians are well used to exacting specifications and I’m very proud of the work they have done to deliver on this both to spec and within the tight timescales.

“At ALVANCE we’re growing and diversifying our customer offering at the same time as developing a truly sustainable end to end value chain - partnerships like this are a great example of where our teams’ skill come to the fore. We look forward to developing our product range with Tyre-Line and to seeing our wheels at campsites around the UK and beyond!”