More than 500 guests filled the King’s suite at the Birmingham Metropole hotel on Oct. 21 as members and guests alike celebrated record attendance at the 82nd National Tyre Distributors Association (NTDA) annual dinner and Tyre and Fast Fit Awards (TAFF).

After announcing the winners, NTDA chairman David White used his speech to announce the news that the association has decided to make its REACT license to fit qualification mandatory for members. According to the chairman, this decision was agreed in the association board meeting that preceded the evening dinner.

White continued his chairman’s speech by highlighting the newly launched “proMOTe” pro-MOT campaign, which sees the industry galvanize its energies against government plans to move the ministry of transport testing system to 4-2-2 frequency and away from annual tests. There also was talk of the winter tire market growing to the point that it is now a significant fixture in the U.K. market. And finally the NTDA chairman announced that Westlake and Infinity have become the first two tire manufacturers to commit to next year’s Brityrex 2012 exhibition.

But without wishing to denigrate the important of any of these things, for many in the tire industry the TAFF awards have become something of the main event with businesses up and down the country doing their utmost to put their best feet forward when it comes to voting time. So without any further ado, here’s a summary of this year’s winners.

First off, the Environment Award was given to Vellco Tyre Control and collected on behalf of the company by John Campbell. The award was won in a field that this year included a high proportion of new tire manufacturers (Continental, Michelin and Yokohama) as well as well-known independent retreader Bandvulc Tyres Ltd.

In the Tyre Manufacturer of the Year category, Pirelli Tyres UK won out with the popular vote, beating last year’s champion in a category that included previous winners Bridgestone, Michelin and Continental, well as newly nominated Hankook Tyre UK.

Despite losing in the manufacturing category, Hankook will no doubt take pleasure in the fact that its cross media marketing activities (including a significant investment in television advertising) was enough in the eyes of industry voters to secure the Tyre Advertising Award. Continental, Infinity, Michelin and Pirelli were all nominated for this award, too.

The 2011 Tyre and Aftermarket Supplier of the Year went to Autogem Motor Concepts, a company that has made great efforts to improve awareness and supply of TPMS components and servicing. Autogem, which was also nominated for this reason in the Innovation Award, had to score more votes than Apaseal Ltd., Euro Car Parts, Harvie Tyres Ltd. and Rema Tip Top Automotive Ltd. to win.

Arguably the most competitive category in the TAFF Awards, this year’s Tyre Wholesaler of the Year battle was once again hard fought. However, Stapleton’s clinched it in the end for the second year in the row. However, you can expect remaining finalists B.I.T.S., Bond International, Grouptyre, Micheldever Tyre Services and Viking International to compete all the more for next year’s title.

In addition to the categories that were decided by popular vote, the winners of two awards were decided by an expert panel from across the tire business. This year’s Innovation Award went to Ram-Rod for its uniquely patented tire inflation safety cage, which is distributed by Rema Tip Top. In order to attain this prize, Ram-Rod’s innovation had to fend off competing cleverness from Autogem (for its supply, training and service concept); Apaseal (for its Master Code tire changer); Toyota (for its pro-active stance on communicating tire safety and performance characteristics in a new POS campaign); and Goodyear and Conti (for a total of three of the two tire manufacturers’ latest designs).

Finally, the Tyre Retailer of the Year award went to Pilgrim Tyres Ltd. (a HiQ member). In order to win the award, supported by Encircle Marketing, Pilgrim Tyres had to beat nationwide competition on a 30-point mystery telephone call, followed by a clandestine branch visit including a service scenario designed to observe how the branch worked in real-life conditions. Strong showing in all these counts ensured that Pilgrim went away victorious in the inaugural year of this new award. (Tyres & Accessories)