Indian tyre maker Apollo Tyres has opened an R&D centre in Enschede, the Netherlands, which will serve as a hub for the development and testing of car and van tyres for its Apollo, Vredestein and Dunlop brands. The Apollo Tyres Global R&D will start operations with more than 100 people from various parts of the world, including 20 car tyre specialists from India and South Africa. It will later be scaled-up to nearly 150 people.
In line with its strategy, the company is bringing together its R&D resources comprising almost 250 people in Africa, Europe and India to create two global R&D hubs in the Netherlands, for car and van tyres, and in Chennai, India, for commercial vehicle tyres.
Both R&D departments will be in close contact with original equipment manufacturers and replacement clients, test centres, raw material suppliers and research institutes. “Going forward, R&D will continue to be the cornerstone of our vision, as we plan to ramp up the R&D spend to 3% of our sales revenue,” said Neeraj Kanwar, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, Apollo Tyres.(RJA)
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