All-weather tires may challenge all-season in Canada

EDMONTON, Alberta — For Canadian motorists accustomed to switching out their set of tires twice a year, between winter tires and all-season tires, the all-weather tire would seem to be an economical alternative.

All-weather tires feature the Three-Peak Mountain Snowflake designation for traction on snowy roads, but all-weathers still don't perform as well as winter tires in severe snow and ice conditions.

However, all-weathers could be a substitute for all-season tires, especially in regions where snow may fall unexpected early, according to Craig Gilmour, supply chain manager for Trail Tire Group in Edmonton.

"Instead of looking at the all-weather tire as, 'Oh, man, it's going to replace the winter tire completely.' No, the all-weather tire actually replaces the all-season tire," he said.

"So we still want, and we promote, and we actively work with our retailers to promote to the consumer market: You still want to do two changeovers, but your changeover becomes your all-weather into winter, and then your winter back into all-weather. And we're taking the all-season tires and we're throwing them out the window," Gilmour said.

"Do I think (all-weathers) will replace all-season? I would have said 'yes' five years ago," said Nason Higinbotham, vice president, stores – British Columbia, Manitoba and Ontario, at Fountain Tire, noting that since being introduced several years ago, all-weather tires took some share away from winter tires, especially during the pandemic.

"I'm seeing some trends that now, maybe not. But again, our stores are servicing everything from that Vancouver customer to White Horse in the Yukon. We're almost in Alaska at that point, right where summer is short and winter is long. ...

"I think (all-weather) will continue to grow, but I think it'll grow at a slower, slower pace than it did over the past 10 years. There's signs that it's peaking.

"In our world, the data is showing that all-season tires are recovering (against the all-weather category)," Higinbotham said, adding that all-seasons "kind of are clawing some (market share) back."

Both men said there are many factors impacting consumer choice between types of tires, including climate region, driving habits, vehicle age and economic factors.

"I'm in Edmonton and right now, there's probably a foot of snow on the ground at the minimum, and it snows every night. By far, more consumers are picking a winter tire here just because of the change in climate and the change in temperature on a daily basis," Higinbotham said.

At Trail Tire, with more than 60 corporate and associate stores in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, along with a wholesale operation, the stores sell as many all-weather tires as traditional all-season tires.

"So all-weather is here to stay, and it's only going to grow," Gilmour said.

"In North America, it's not a fad. I still hear that in the industry from time to time. It's not a thing that's going to go away, and it's definitely not a gimmick. The performance, the quality, the build and engineering of all-weather tires is at or above what the expectation should be for an all-season," Gilmour said.

At Fountain Tire, with about 168 stores, for every all-weather tire sold, the dealership sells 2 1/4 winter tires and 1 1/2 all-season tires, Higinbotham said.

The winter in western Canada was milder this year, according to Gilmour.

"We never really got a huge blast of winter. And the little bit we did, the (winter tire sales) craziness only lasted for a day or two. So we missed out on that 10-11 days of absolute madness where every retail shop is trying to get absolutely every tire they can get their hands on from every distributor.

"So I would say the winter season was OK, and some of the actions that we took as a company prevented it from kind of spiraling out of control on us," Gilmour said, noting the dealership relies on domestic suppliers for in-season replenishment of winter tires and reduce overstock.

"So if I think I'm going to sell 100 tires, maybe I order 85 and then if I sell that 85 maybe I'll order another 15. And if I don't sell that 85 then I'm kind of going, 'Great, now I don't have 20 tires still on the shelf, I've only got five packs still on the shelf.' ...

"So it's not maybe the traditional approach. The traditional approach is more, we think we're going to sell 100, order 100 and then live with the consequences," Gilmour said.

In the 2024 season, versus 2023, Fountain Tire saw some "pretty impressive growth in our sellout in the winter category. In fact, look going back at the last 10 years, 2024 winter tire sellout was the best we've seen in the previous 10 years," Higinbotham said, noting that winter tire sales increased 15%, compared with 2023.

All-weather (up 5% from 2023) and all-season tires (up 6%) also had record sellout this season compared with the previous 10 years.

"Another thing that does dictate a little bit of the consumer behavior is how early winter arrives in Canada," Higinbotham said, noting that winter tire sales spike if winter weather arrives in October, but if wintry conditions hold off until late December or January, motorists tend to just buy all-weathers.

"The biggest shift we saw from winter to all-weather was probably eight years ago. That's at least in our data, when I look at some of the store sellout, the further north you go, the more you see all-season/winter as the choice versus all-weather.

In urban markets, winter tire storage costs impact customers decisions to consider all-weather tires.

"So, specifically in the last year, where we're seeing the trends with all-weather continuing to grow, are in the urban centers. In the rural markets the winter tire is where it was still a preference," Higinbotham said.

"We have also seen in certain markets where people just buy winters and leave them all year round — more in the north where the summers are shorter —and they are going to wear out faster, for sure, but we have seen that, and some people do that, too."

"What's sort of interesting is, in our world, all-weather really gained traction going back around 2018/2019 is where it sort of went from we had a couple product lines to having multiple product lines across multiple brands and that's where it really took off. And then it's been slow, steady growth since then," Higinbotham said, noting that after all-season tires sales took a hit, they have been recovering.

Fifteen years ago, all-weather tires were a small percentage of the SKUs a dealers carried and was viewed as more of a marketing gimmick, Gilmour said.

But that segment has grown as more major manufacturers have introduced their versions of all-weather tires with the 3PMS symbol.

Gilmour noted all-season tires work well for warmer climes, such as the lower mainland of British Columbia and the Vancouver area.

"However, that all-weather tire is going to give you that extra bit of traction control and stopping power when it snows on Aug. 15 and you're driving back from Jasper with your family after a long weekend in the mountains, and all of a sudden you're driving through 3 inches of snow because a weird late summer snowstorm happened in northern Alberta. But you've got your all-weather tires on," Gilmour said, adding, "An all-weather tire is quickly becoming the best option for customers, specifically in the Canadian market."

Gilmour added: "What I see is, if anything, all-weather tires have spurred the increase in winter tires, or are starting to move toward that, with a customer going, 'Well, hold on, if I'm thinking about an all-weather tire, I'm looking for my traction. I'm looking for this protection against the inclement element. Maybe I should be looking at a winter tire as well.'

"So it's an opportunity to sell the customer into both of those options without sacrificing the winter."

Gilmour, who is in contact with Fountain tire stores around the country, said the feedback from salespeople is: "'I haven't had to change my selling approach. I'm just changing the type of tire I'm selling to the customer.'

"And to be honest, it's way easier to sell a customer a set of all-weathers than it is a set of all-seasons, especially when the customer is staring at you, going, 'It snows eight months of the year. Please explain to me why I need this tire that you're telling me not to drive in the snow and make sure when it snows, I get my rear-end back in here to get my snow tires put on.' Oh, but you've got this all-weather option.

"That means, if it snows on Monday and I can't get an appointment to put my winters on until next Tuesday, at least I've got winter-rated traction on my vehicle,'" Gilmour said.

He admitted there are instances when a customer buys an all-weather tire, a winter tire sale is lost, and that customer will only be replacing their tires when they need a new set.

Before all-weather tires were introduced, that type of customer was probably only driving on all-seasons.

"Well, if we can get that customer into an all-weather, we've just put a safer car on the road in terms of traction and stopping anyway. The actual driver, well we can't control that, but we've put a safer footprint on the road by doing that," Gilmour said.

He even surmised that all-weather tires may become an OEM fitment option in the future.

Gilmour and Higinbotham said consumers seem to understand the difference between an all-season and all-weather tire, but dealers still need to help them choose.

"We have an opportunity at the retail counter to have that conversation and explain to them what the actual difference is that, no, an all-weather tire does not replace a winter tire. It is effectively a better version of an all-season tire, with some exceptions," Gilmour said, adding, "But I would say most consumers are aware there is a difference between an all-season and all-weather. My gut tells me there are still a lot of consumers out there that think the all-weather is replacing the winter."

Dealers need to warn customers that a winter tire is the optimum winter driving tire.

"It's the difference between stopping at 8 feet and stopping at 12 feet, and that, in turn, is the difference between stopping before the trunk of the car and stopping in the back seat of the car in front," Gilmour said.

"And that's really what we're trying to prevent. We're not going to stop the skids and slides and accidents and all of that kind of stuff. We're not going to stop that with tires. But what we're going to do is reduce or limit the impact, the negative impact, of that.

"So consumers have an expectation that the tire installer, the retailer, is going to provide them with the best option for their vehicle."

As a distributor, Trail Tire provides its retailers with training tools to help them properly sell the different types of tires.

Last year, Trail Tire created a specific all-weather menu on its website so a consumer can call up only all-weather-designated tires, to the exclusion of other types.

"We took great pains to make sure that all-weather also excluded winter. We don't want to lump them in the same, we want to be very careful that we're not promoting a winter tire as an all-weather tire," Gilmour said.

Fountain Tire's Higinbotham agreed that education at the sales counter is key.

"So if you're following a proper process, which we coach on, it's really to understand what type of driving the consumer is going to do. You have to ask them the questions. If they're calling you in April looking for a new set of tires, you need to ask them: Do they have winter tires? Like, these are things we didn't consider before, right? But the all-weather has made us go there.

"So do you have winter tires? How long are you going to keep your vehicle? What type of annual driving are you doing? If you're driving in the winter, where are you driving?"

An all-weather tire may be appropriate for customers living in warmer, wetter climates in Canada, and occasionally go to the mountains to go skiing, Higinbotham said.

Also, customers driving in urban centers may do well with all-weathers year round.

"I can tell you our stores that sell the most all-weather tires are when they are recommending that product to a customer. They do make sure they're explaining what an all-weather tire truly is and what they can expect from that tire," Higinbotham said.

"So considerations might be that in some tread designs, and every manufacturer have their own opinions, but in some tread designs they might experience a little more road noise, or you might experience that they wear a little quicker, or you might experience, if you've been used to dedicated winter tires, that your ice traction might not be as good, or in the summer, on a hot day, they might wear faster. They perform differently than an all-season tire," Higinbotham said.

"We have been consciously spending more time educating the customer on what to expect, because if that customer had typically bought all-seasons previously, and they bought a premium product that was going to have a longer tread life warranty ... they're not likely to achieve that on the set of all-weather tires."