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Leading tyre maker Apollo Tyres’ two-wheeler business has gathered momentum with market share in the premium segment reaching double-digits. The company has also commenced supply of its newly developed tyre range for electric vehicles.
“In keeping with its overall strategy of bringing in top-class products, focusing on brand campaigns and increasing distribution footprint, the company’s two-wheeler category made significant inroads in the high-value, highly profitable premium motorcycle tyre market following a similar strategy, thus increasing its market share to reach double-digits,” said the company’s annual report for 2021-22.
Also, the launch of new range of tyres under its European brand Vredestein in FY22 plugged the product gap and covered all major international two-wheeler brands such as Triumph, Ducati, Kawasaki and Yamaha, among others. It launched the Vredestein Centauro ST and Vredestein Centauro NS, targeting the 650cc plus category of super sports and sport touring bikes.
“Before the launch of these tyres, customers had to wait for months to get the tyres because of their non-availability locally and due to import restrictions. The company seized this opportunity, entered into this segment and these tyres are being accepted not only in the Indian market but also in other countries like South Africa, Thailand and West Asia,” it said.
This year, the company will launch the ‘Tramplr’ series targeted at on-road and off-road riding segments.
Apollo Tyres is closely working with Bajaj/KTM, Hero MotoCorp, BMW/TVS, Yamaha and Royal Enfield to supply its premium range. It has also initiated expansion of capacity in the two-wheeler category and new facilities have been approved for increasing the production.
EV tyre range
As electric vehicle sales gradually gather momentum in the country, Apollo Tyres has developed an EV tyre range.
The company is supplying an EV-specific tyre- Apollo WAV- to Hero Electric.
A joint development with another EV maker Ampere is on and a new EV vehicle fitted with the Apollo Tyres’ EV tyres will be launched soon.
The company ended FY22 with consolidated sales of ₹20,948 crore, a 20 per cent growth over FY21 sales. While Indian operations grew 25 per cent, Europe recorded a healthy increase of 18 per cent.
“Our focus on the Europe region with our ‘premiumisation’ strategy necessitated the specialisation process which entailed a focus on profitable products like agricultural tyres and high value - niche segment passenger car tyres. It is heartening to note that this strategy has brought in results as the region crossed an important milestone of the 100 million euro mark as EBIDTA in FY22. This is the highest ever EBITDA for the European Operations over the last 13 years,” said Onkar Kanwar, Chairman & Managing Director of the company, in the report.
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