Women take senior positions at North Eastern Tyre and Exhausts

Jul 27 2010 by Peter McCusker, The Journal

THE world of car tyres, exhausts and servicing is normally perceived as a male preserve but with almost 50% of its customers women one North East company is aiming to change that perception.

North Eastern Tyre and Exhausts (NETE) has been quick to buck the traditional stereotypes of a male dominated industry and has recently welcomed a number of women into its senior management team.

Gavin Marshall, managing director of NETE which boasts 23 retail outlets and five wholesale depots across the North East, believes in equality and diversity and understands how important it is to spread that message to its staff and customers.

“As a company which employs over 350 people, equality and diversity are extremely important to us. NETE’s company policy is to simply recruit and promote the best candidate into positions and the fact that we have recently promoted so many of our female employees is testament to that.

“It’s great to see so many women coming up the ranks to be promoted into senior positions. We pride ourselves on good team management for all our staff.”

With its reputation for being male dominated, many female employees are overlooked for promotions within the motor industry, that is if they make it into the industry in the first place. Most of the recent female appointments into the senior management team were promoted internally.

Joanne Hooper, joined NETA just one year ago as a marketing co-ordinator. Already she is marketing manager and is now responsible for overseeing all aspects of both wholesale and retail marketing, and has been instrumental in the promotion of NETA’s multi-million-pound investment in the acquisition and development of 15 HiQ retail trading outlets, as well as the recent ecommerce website.

She said: “Half of our customers are women, so it’s important that they feel welcomed, especially as industry research shows that women generally don’t feel at ease within a fast fit outlet. The fact that there is a strong female voice which is both heard and listened to at NETE, means that our workforce is diverse with an equal gender balance and therefore we are able to make all of our customers feel welcome. For instance, many of our branches offer free internet access, children’s play areas and plasma TVs in their cafe-style reception.”

North Eastern Tyre and Exhausts is aiming for annual sales of over £57m this year.