AutoPartsAsia | FEBRUARY 2018 | 13CORPORATE
T
he Global dreams of Indian
tyre maker Apollo Tyres got
a shot in the arm with the
opening of its ultra-modern
world-class manufacturing facility
at Chinnapanduru, Chittoor, Andhra
Pradesh, India. In April 2017, the
company started production at its
plant in Hungary. Within eight months
another world-class facility starts taking
baby steps in line with the company’s
vision of ‘going the distance.’ Apollo
plans to use ‘Best Practices’ in the
new plant which is expected to be
operational in 20-24 months.
Onkar S Kanwar said that while
planning for the new state-of-the-art
manufacturing facility, the company
has provisioned for future capacity
expansion requirements in India for the
next five years and more.
“We will produce 16,000 passenger
car tyres daily at the Andhra Plant (5.
million tyres a year) initially with an
investment of around Rs 18 billion. The
first phase is for Passenger Car Radial
(PCR) tyres, but eventually, pick-up and
SUV tyres will be made here. Then we
will produce truck radial followed by
OTR – off the road tyres - for special
applications like mining etc.,” Neeraj
Kanwar, said.
“We see a shortage in the supply
of PCR segment. Five years ago,
Apollo was a small passenger car tyre
company. Today, we are the number
two in India with supplies to OEMs andto the aftermarket. The brand has gone
up in India. We do maximum exports
from India to every part of the world,”
he said.
The new plant is the seventh
production facility of the company,
which is present in over 100 countries.
Apollo Tyres has four manufacturing
facilities in India - two (including a
leased facility) in Kerala and one each
in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu. Outside
India, the company has manufacturing
units in The Netherlands and Hungary.
While detailing about Best Practices,
Kanwar said,“Over time, we
understood the way radial tyres are
being made. Recently we have done
the launch in Hungary. So you will see
best practices coming from Hungary
which we learned over the years in
terms of automation, maintenance and
engineering. We would like to bring
these learnings into the state of Andhra
Pradesh. With this, productivity will
increase. Productivity per man-hour
should be the highest eventually. In the
Hungary plant, from raw material to
finished product is automated. There is
cost difference of labour between India
and Hungary. But there is automation
in terms of standards and quality which
we will be bringing over here.
Apollo Tyres had purchased 260 acres
of land from the Andhra Pradesh
government for the plant. “The Andhra
Pradesh government was very pro-
active. We are committed to providingemployment to around 700 people in
the first phase. In Chennai, we have
about 2,000 permanent employees and
another 1,000 outsourced employees.
If all goes well we will increase
investment. The capacity in Andhra is
small, to begin with, only 180 tonnes
per day. Gradually its capacity will be
similar to the Chennai facility,” Neeraj
said.
The company markets its products
under two global brands- Apollo and
Vredestein. The products are sold
the world over through a network of
branded, exclusive and multi-product
outlets.“In Chennai, we have expanded fully.
We don’t have more land. We have
invested Rs 50 billion there from 2009
to 2017. Now we are producing close
to 900 tonnes per day,” he added.
Neeraj also mentioned about the
plans of the company for two-wheeler
tyres. “For two-wheelers, we have now
moved back to Baroda. Very soon we
will be launching motorcycle radials
from Baroda. We will also be making
high-end motorcycle biased tyres from
there for the replacement market. High-
end two-wheeler tyres and motorcycle
radials will be made in-house.”
Recently, Neeraj Kanwar had stated
that the company would expand its
footprint in Europe and North America
through the organic route. As of now,
the company gets 60 percent of its
revenue from the Indian market.AP Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu lighting the lamp during the foundation stone laying ceremony of Apollo Tyres’ facility in APApollo Tyres Going The Distance
With Best Practices
APA Bureau