Tyre Asia April/May 2018 67
What are your strategies in
building and sustaining Apollo
and Vredestein brands amid
rising competition from other
European players?
The two key pillars for us have always been
R&D and Marketing. We have been investing
heavily in R&D to come up with better
quality products under both Apollo and
Vredestein brands. Our products have been
rated highly on several occasions by leading
auto/testing magazines in Europe, which is
the single largest influencing factor for tyre
purchase for European customers.
In addition, as you would be aware, we
have tied up with Premier League teams,
Manchester United and Crystal Palace
football clubs, as their global tyre partner,
and with Borussia Monchengladbach in the
German Bundesliga. We are leveraging these
associations, along with our relationship
with premium OEMs in Europe, to build
both the brands in Europe and beyond.
Amid the continuing disruption
in tyre technologies, how do
you plan to make product
differentiation as a key factor
for growth?
Apollo’s R&D Team, with relevant
inputs from the Product and Customer
Services, always strives to come up with
technologically advanced products for
all product categories. Towards this,
the R&D team is working with various
research institutes and universities towards
development of technology which will be a
key to our better quality products.
Do you think that with your
stronger manufacturing
facilities in Netherlands and
Hungary, you can take on
other players in the competitive
European market?
We have been competing with the global
tyre majors, first in India, and now in
Europe and other parts of the world. With
the increasing demand for both Apollo and
Vredestein brand of tyres, we first increased
the capacity of our Dutch facility by more
than 20-25%, and then set-up a greenfield
facility in Hungary to complement that.
With the Hungary facility coming on stream,
we have recently started supplies to some of
the leading OEMs in Europe, which is again
a positive for our growth and presence in
the European market.Unique capability
Do you believe that budget
tyres and dumping from low-
cost manufactures are a cause
of concern for your European
growth strategies?
The low cost tyres or the dumping of tyres,
both of which are mostly of low quality,
does not stand a chance in Europe. The
consumers here are very much aware
of the kind of product they want, and
rely on quality products which receive
high ratings from auto magazines and
similar organisations. This is the reason
Europe is considered to be one of the
most challenging markets for automotive
industry, where a low quality product will
not survive.With your strong R&D base
in Europe and India, are
you confident that Apollo
can continually enhance its
competitive advantage?
Most definitely. Our unique capability is in
understanding the customer requirements
and translating them into value added
products in the shortest possible time. In
order to meet the faster time to market
needs, our Global R&D Centres adopt a
synergistic approach towards research
through collaboration with premium
research centres, R&D centres of material/
equipment suppliers and universities on
topics which need intensive focus. The
Advanced Engineering Centre in Bangalore
conducts research on enabling technologies
leading to intelligent tyre development,
while the one in Raunheim works closely
with OEMs to develop products suited to
their stringent requirements.We have set up several laboratories for
material characterisation, forensic analysis,
testing and evaluation, design, simulation
and modelling and reconstruction of
formulation and design under one roof to
meet all the requirements of R&D. Both our
R&D Centres, in Asia and in Europe, are
comparable to the best R&D Centres across
the world for tyres.W
e have been competing
with the global tyre
majors, first in India, and now
in Europe and other parts of
the world. With the increasing
demand for both Apollo and
Vredestein brand of tyres, we
first increased the capacity
of our Dutch facility by more
than 20-25%, and then set-
up a greenfield facility in
Hungary to complement that