Milan-headquartered company Pirelli, renowned for its tyres for cars, motorcycles and bikes, is to work up its distribution network to 1,200 by the end of 2021. Pirelli Tyres India (Pirelli India) Commercial Director, Akash Singh Rathore, explained that “a wide product range” will enhance the company’s profitability, achieved by increasing the offering to the dealers. As such,its latest offerings include new products for the mass segment – namely the P7 EVO for the passenger car and Scorpion MTR for the SUV segment.
Rathore noted that buyers were rapidly moving to the premium/prestige segment, which constitutes 7% of the total tyre industry in India, and said their focus on the segment would continue.
“The industry growth in the car replacement market was between 5-6% last year, but the premium/prestige segment was growing by 15-18%.As our base is small, we have to grow much higher than the industry to grow our market share.”
The company currently records a market share of 45% in the premium/prestige segment.
Pirelli’s Indian operations are confined to the replacement market with a sale of roughly 18,000 tyres/month and caters to the luxury Mercedes-Benz on the OEM front. At present, Pirelli India imports all its tyres as it does not have manufacturing facilities in India.
Meanwhile, Rathore sees motorcycle radial tyres as a potential market in the country: “Many companies are investing heavily in motorcycle radials, so we are expecting to see huge replacement demand in the near future.”