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Priyanka Vyas

Recently in Sepang, Malaysia Goodyear, the US-based tyre manufacturing company, said that it would expand its retail presence in India by setting up 4,000 retail outlets in 2008, up from the current 3,100. This would be mainly driven by the robust sales in the passenger car segment and the replacement market in India.

Beginning this week, the company launched its Assurance tyres for the mid size passenger car segment. “India has been one of the fastest growing markets. Our newly introduced mid size passenger car segment tyres would be available in the Indian market in the next few days,” said Mr DP Singh, Marketing Director, Asia Pacific Region, Good Year at the launch of its ‘Assurance’ tyres at the Sepang FI circuit in Malaysia. The company estimates that the mid-sized passenger car volume is around 24 million, 30 per cent of the overall Asia-Pacific market.

Talking to journalists invited by the company to test cars equipped with its tyres, on the racing track and under different weather conditions, Mr Richard Flemming, Managing Director, Goodyear, APAC said, “This will fit a wide range of car models in India from mid size sedan, hatchbacks to entry level luxury sedans and will offer safety and durability.”

Goodyear India, a subsidiary of the $ 19.6-billion Ohio-headquartered company which employs about 70,000 people, is also seeking to expand its presence both in the OE segment and the replacement market.

“We would like to strengthen our presence in the OE category as it helps us to build confidence among the customers enabling us to boost our share in the after sales market,” said Mr K Mahesh, Sales and Marketing Director, Goodyear India on its sales boosting strategy in the domestic market. He also said that the company would mainly focus on the passenger car and tractors segment despite its presence in the off -the- road and commercial vehicles category. During April-Jan 2007-08 overall tyre production in India stood at 67.1 million, according to data from ATMA, a growth of around 10 per cent.

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