One of India’s leading two- and three-wheeler tyre maker, TVS Srichakra, recently launched Protorq, the company’s two-wheeler radial tyres meant for premium bikes. TVS Srichakra joins the list of a few other India tyre companies like MRF and Ceat that have already come out with such radial tyres for motorcycles.
As India’s largest manufacturer of two-wheeler tyres, the company’s launch of technologically-advanced radial tyres is a logical expansion for them. The new product segment is also expected to offer strong growth opportunity in view of increasing sales of bikes in the higher CC categories — 150 cc and above.
“The 150cc-and-above bike segment is expected to maintain strong sales growth going forward and we feel more and more such super bikes will sport radial tyres. Presently, not all such premium bikes use radial tyres. Most of them are fitted with bias tyres. But in the future, these bikes are expected to move to radial tyres,” said P.Vijayaraghavan, Director, TVS Srichakra Ltd.
Now, TVS Srichakra has introduced only one size. Two more sizes will come in the next few months. Protorq is meant for both replacement and OEM segments. While it was launched for the replacement market, the company has given samples to two-wheeler manufacturers for OEM fitments.
Vijayaraghavan said Protorq radial tyres were developed by in-house R&D with technology inputs from international experts. The tyre has been made using Zero Degree Radial Belt technology and has been tested for well over a year in all terrains all over the country. “It will offer better comfort, high speed durability and reliable braking, among others,” he added.
He said the two-wheeler replacement market was also seeing some strong momentum and that was expected to augur well for the company.
The company is also in the process of completing its capacity expansion programme under which it is boosting total capacity to 2.5 million tyres a month from 2.3 million tyres. “We are currently expanding our production capacity at Madurai and Rudrapur in Uttarkhand, for which we have made a capex of Rs.160 crore this year,” he said. The expansion is expected to be completed this year.
The company is in the process of expanding the number of dealers during this year as well. It has over 3,000 dealers across the country.