Putoline Distribution
PUTOLINE POWERS UP
Dedicated to bikes only, in spanking new premises, and with restructured management and sales teams, Putoline Distribution is oiling the wheels of expansion. Report: Gerard Kane
innovative and dedicated, Putoline carries the widest range of motorcycle lubricants on the market and is the UK’s largest off-road lubricant brand. Managing director John Hayden, who bought Putoline Distribution in 2004, says: “Yes, we’ve come a long way. I took over as MD for the Dutch owners of the company in 2001 after the tragic death of my good friend and former MD Mark Hood. The rest of 2001 was a very hard and emotional period for us, but as a team we worked tirelessly and still managed to record the best ever sales figures for the company. “Since then, we grew sales every year up to 2010 when there was a slight dip, but we bounced back to record our best ever result in 2011.”
P
NEW PREMISES What Hayden and his team have achieved in the face of serious recession speaks volumes about their go-ahead attitude and the way they do business. In 2010 they moved from leased
premises in Bourne, Lincolnshire, to smart new offices and a warehouse facility a few miles down the road in Market Deeping. “We’d just outgrown the facility at Bourne,” says Hayden. “We had already taken on another 7000sq. ft unit there, but when
utoline Distribution is the only oil company that deals solely with motorcycle product. Enthusiastic,
the lease was coming up for renewal, my wife Sally [a Putoline director] and I decided to take the plunge and invest in our own premises. “We’ve got more than twice as much space here, and room to grow.”
Putoline’s extensive motorcycle-only lubricant range.
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COMPANY RESTRUCTURE The move provided an opportunity to take a long hard look at the way the company does business. The result was significant restructuring. “Our rapid expansion rate was starting to bog down,” says Hayden. “We needed to adapt to cater for growth and to bring new skills on board. So we appointed Dylan Brown as operations manager in September 2011. He has had a huge impact on how the company works.” Recruited from off-road specialist distributor Apico International, Brown is responsible for the management of internal staff, promotion, marketing, sponsorship, purchasing, new products, and aspects of the day-to-day running of the business. He also manages sales in the north-west. “I split my time between the office, working from home, and being on the road visiting dealers. It keeps me very busy,” he says. A new management team has been appointed, made up of Brown, newly promoted UK sales manager Gary Sidaway, and UK technical manager Jim Moulder.
“Since forming the management team we have gone from strength to strength.”
MD Hayden explains: “Sally and I both felt that forming a management team would be pivotal for the continuing growth of the company. We now have the perfect individuals in place to facilitate this, and since forming the management team we have gone from strength to strength.”
MARKETING AND SPONSORSHIP “One of our key aims is to drive the image of the Putoline brand forward by targeted marketing and sponsorship activities,” says Hayden. “Because we deal solely with
the motorcycle trade, we can focus our marketing and advertising 100 per cent at the motorcycle owner and enthusiast. “In the past we have been very good at
promoting the product to the trade, but now we’re concentrating on making the end user more aware of the brand. That’s what will drive customers into our dealers. “We’ve launched an advertising campaign
in various motorcycle publications including Trials and Motocross News, Dirt Bike Rider, Trial Magazine, Bike Sport News, British Dealer News, Motorcycle Trader and Enduro Extreme, to name but a few. Plus we’re stepping up our website activities and social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. They’re vital in reaching a new and younger customer base.” Operations manager Brown has also instigated
an aggressive sponsorship programme to keep Putoline at the forefront of the minds of off-road competitors and fans. “We’re running the Putoline Honda team in the 2013 British indoor Arenacross, MX2 championships and the Red Bull Pro-National series, with Neville Bradshaw and James Cottrell riding for us,” says Brown. “That should be exciting. We’re also supporting Powerband Racing, who’ll be running in the Red Bull schoolboy classes.
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