After Los Angeles in 2016, Munich in 2017, Monaco in 2018, and Dubai at the beginning of 2019, Melbourne in Australia hosts Pirelli’s latest flagship store. The P Zero World concept – a powerful symbol of Pirelli’s brand positioning as well as the company’s retail strategy – now completes its world tour thanks to another opening on a new continent.
A BOUTIQUE FOR TYRES
The P Zero World concept can be accurately summarised as a “boutique store for tyres”: a facility in which customers can find Pirelli’s most exclusive products along with bespoke services for owners of sports cars and luxury cars. The global P Zero World stores are the only places where customers can discover the entire Pirelli range, such as the P Zero Trofeo R – the most performance-focussed tyre homologated for road use – as well as the Pirelli Collezione: tyres for classic cars that combine period looks with modern technology. It’s not just car tyres that can be found at P Zero World either. Motorbike and Velo road bike tyres are also available, not to mention Pirelli Design accessories, which are developed in conjunction with some of the world’s most prestigious brands, such as Montblanc, MV Agusta, Puma, Roger Dubuis and Tecnorib. Car valeting and courtesy cars are among the exclusive services offered to P Zero World customers, but it doesn’t stop there: Pirelli’s track expert is also on hand; a technician able to advise on the ideal set up for each car, whether for road or track use. The services and products offered at this unique store are designed to live up to the standards of automotive excellence showcased by the world’s prestige car manufacturers: a sector where Pirelli is market leader with more than 50% of cars fitting the Italian tyres as original equipment. While more than one out of every two supercars is equipped by Pirelli, the company is also prominent in the premium market, where the Italian firm supplies more than 20% of all original equipment, underlining its leadership of the very top of the automotive pile.
The Melbourne branch of P Zero World was born in collaboration with Mag Wheel Tyre, occupying a structure that covers more than 1200 square metres with five service ramps, located opposite the city’s premier shopping mall. Mag Wheel Tyre is a family business created in 2,000 that has been collaborating with Pirelli for several years already and serves around 40 cars per day. Current figures show that a large part of tyres sold in the store is in 18-inch size or bigger, in line with Pirelli’s high value strategy.
WHY MELBOURNE?
The state of Victoria, with Melbourne as its capital, boasts Australia’s highest number of vehicle registrations in the prestige sector. One of every three supercars sold in Australia is registered in Victoria. So far in 2019, more than 5,000 new cars at the very top end of the market were registered in Australia, where currently more than 50,000 prestige cars are on the road, with an average growth in this market sector of 8% compared to a 6% growth in the premium market and a 3% growth in general car sales across the country.
Melbourne is also a city that is home to more than 36% of Italians in Australia, meaning that the Italian community in Victoria is the biggest in the country. In particular, the Preston district, where the fifth P Zero World has just opened, is reckoned by review sites to have the best Italian food in all of Melbourne. With the addition of P Zero World, Pirelli brings another taste of Italy to the local area, serving the best cars on the planet.
The seas between Australia and New Zealand will furthermore play host to the 2021 America’s Cup, where the Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli team is set to compete in two years’ time, with Australian James Spithill on board.
FROM ROAD TO TRACK TO P ZERO WORLD
The opening ceremony was preceded by a supercar parade, featuring models from Ferrari, Lamborghini, Aston Martin, Bentley, and Maserati driving along the roads of Albert Park: which once a year transforms itself into the Australian Grand Prix venue. Pirelli has been the exclusive supplier to the pinnacle of motorsport since 2011, and the company can rely on more than 110 years of competition experience.
On top of that, with Lamborghini as a partner, Pirelli also organised a track day at Phillip Island on the same day. The high performance Aventador S and Huracàn Evo took to the circuit on P Zero tyres, while the Urus demonstrated its capabilities on an off-road track, underlining the quality and versatility of Pirelli’s tyre range. Pirelli in fact developed four different tyres for the Urus, all with bespoke markings on the sidewall to indicate that they are especially made for Lamborghini. There’s P Zero and P Zero Corsa for Urus drivers who predominantly use their cars on the road, while two different Scorpion tyres – Winter and All Season (with a dedicated All Terrain version) – cater for those who also want to take their cars off-road.
