So says ATS Euromaster, which has seen a seven-fold increase in sales of cold weather tyres since the beginning of November 2013 and expects its total cold weather tyre sales to exceed £10m in 2013.

The firm says its cold weather tyre sales increased by 14% in 2012 compared with the previous year, and this year is on track for further double-digit growth.

Peter Fairlie, ATS Euromaster’s group sales director, puts this down to more businesses seeing the benefits of fitting seasonal tyres in response to the growing trend for prolonged periods of freezing temperatures, ice and snowfall in the UK.

He said: ‘Temperatures plummeted in November and the gritters have been kept busy on our roads, but we’ve not seen any widespread snowfall yet.  Despite this, a number of prominent long range forecasters are reporting that this winter could set new records and are advising people to be prepared.’