Tyre Asia – May-June 2018

64 Tyre Asia April/May 2018

COVER STORY

For Apollo Tyres, ‘go the distance’ is not

only a trendy branding tagline, but also a

statement of its determination to scale up

continually in he global ranking among tyre

companies. These are tough challenges but

under Chairman Onkar S Kanwar, 76,

impediments on the way are always turned

into stepping stones to achieve what he has

set out to achieve: Preferred supplier to global

OEMs and leader in the aftermarket. Building

a wide range of premium quality tyres without

compromise has taken the company so far

and there is no stopping it. Expansion and

consolidation through production innovation

and marketing keep the momentum for the

company under his watch. In this interview to

Tyre Asia, the man behind the wheel – who

turned a once bankrupt company into one

of the foremost tyre makers in the world –

espouses his vision. It is the global talent pool

that drives Apollo’s business strategy anchored

on technological excellence, modernisation,

and uncompromising commitment to quality.

Excerpts from the interview

Customer Focus

Drives Business

Mobility is witnessing technological

disruptions of various kinds – be

intelligent tyres, autonomous vehicles

etc. How are these shaping your

strategic preparedness to remain on top

of the tumultuous changes?

Tyres are becoming intelligent as they now contain more

and more enabling technologies within its structure.

Advancements in sensors and electronics are making

this possible and Apollo Tyres’ Advanced Engineering

Centre is working towards development of intelligent

tyres in the foreseeable future.

Our R&D is working with various research institutes

and universities towards development of technology.

Noise reduction on tyres, new generation materials that

can support low rolling resistance and development of

advanced simulations are on the active list of priorities.

Apollo is collaborating with Virginia Tech in the US,

University of Twente in the Netherlands, University

of Dresden and IPF (Leibniz Institute of Polymer

Research) in Germany on various material, tyre and

vehicle related research.

Apollo has deepened and widened its

global footprint. As you continually

expand, what are the problems and

prospects that you see in dominating

a diversified and competitive

marketplace?

Our 2020 vision is to achieve a premium position in

Europe and to be the leaders in all the segments we

operate in India. Towards that, we are also looking at

supplying to the leading premium OEs in Europe from

our facilities.

TA News Bureau

Onkar S Kanwar