Indian tyre manufacturer Apollo Tyres Ltd. (Apollo) will reintroduce high-end tyres of its European subsidiary tyre brand – Apollo Tyres-Vredestein – in India by 2021. Apollo had previously introduced the Vredestein tyre brand for a trial run in the Indian market, to poor response. However, growth opportunities abound – the restriction on imported tyres will allow Apollo to manufacture tyres locally as it already has suitable equipment.
The company’s Vice Chairman and Managing Director Neeraj Kanwar said, “We have seen the opportunity of launching our Vredestein brand in India […] the month of January is when the Indian marketing team is looking at launching Vredestein into the Indian replacement market, because that higher segment of the market also has a mentality of having a foreign-branded tyre on their car.”
Apollo acquired Vredestein in 2009 for an undisclosed sum of money; the tyres are currently sold in Europe, the US, the Middle East, Africa and a few Asian countries.
Kanwar also mentions Apollo’s investment plans, which is heading towards the end of its current capex cycle. “We are focused on sweating the assets and deleveraging the balance sheet. We expect the capex intensity to come down in the next few years, which coupled with recovery in demand should help us generate positive free cash flows and further deleverage our balance sheet.”