Press Release

Retail Tyre Trade representation visit Hunter

Key figures from some of the UK’s leading retail tyre trade recently made a transatlantic trip to American Mid West to see Hunter Engineering- a world leading wheel alignment and tyre service equipment manufacturer.

Pro-Align, Hunter’s distributor organised the trip and the 22 strong party flew out of Birmingham on 22nd May to St Louis, Missouri. The travel weary group were warmly welcomed at the hotel by Wes Wingo – Hunter’s Director of International Sales and Tom Ksiazek – Regional Manager – Europe, before retiring exhausted but excited at the prospect of events to come!

After a good nights rest, the group were escorted by Wes and Tom to Hunter’s headquarters a short ride away.

The whole group were officially welcomed to Hunter before heading off on a factory tour.  This was quite an eye opener to all concerned.  “We were expecting the equipment just to be churned out and coming off the end of a conveyor.  In fact every machine was being assembled with the greatest of care” Matt Sunderland of Guildford Tyres acknowledged.  “The level of quality control for each machine was 100% spot-on every time. At four different stages of the assembly the targets and cameras were checked, and any inaccuracies were not only rectified but they could pinpoint the exact cause of the problem. It brings a whole new meaning to Total Quality Management (TQM).”

Following the tour, the group were taken to Hunters new training facility where presentations on the latest Hunter equipment were held.  Hunters latest HawkEye, High Definition imaging technology was introduced and demonstrated.  The Pro-Align guests were also privileged to preview  ‘Codelink’ a steering angle sensor reset tool developed by Hunter to enable workshops to reset steering sensors when carrying out alignment on new cars, which are fitted with steering warning lights/sensors.

The afternoon continued with presentations on Hunter balancers and Tyre changers. The group spent time with the development team responsible for the revolutionary Hunter SmartWeight balancer. Everyone found this a superb opportunity, filling the ‘knowledge gap’ and asking those questions, you always want to ask! 

The surprise of the afternoon was when the group was invited by Hunter’s Chairman Stephen Brauer, to see his personal museum/ collection.  His collection of historic cars is renowned and the whole group were given a personal guided tour by Mr Brauer, himself. They were given privileged access to his most recent restoration project – the  Swandean Spitfire Special – fitted with a Merlin engine!. It was originally built by Michael Wilcock, proprietor of Swandean Garage in Worthing, Sussex, UK.  It understandably became a Brighton Speed Trail record holder.