Official Ceremony Marks Opening of Yokohama India

The Yokohama Rubber Co. took a further step into the Indian market on July 27 when it officially marked the opening of its new subsidiary, Yokohama India. Company, industry, governmental and media representatives assembled at a hotel in New Delhi commemorate the occasion. Yokohama Rubber board director and senior managing corporate officer Takashi Sugimoto and board director and corporate officer Tooru Kobayashi represented the parent company at the ceremony.

Prior to this year Yokohama Rubber marketed passenger car tyres in India through its Singapore based tyre distributor. The transition to an India based operation began with the founding of Yokohama India in April 2007, and from now onwards the company plans to transfer sales activities to the new subsidiary, from where it will implement its own independent sales strategy. The company reports that Yokohama India will kick things off with an emphasis on the high performance passenger car market, an area in which the company believes to be a particular area of strength. This initial activity will include the Indian launch of the company’s premium ADVAN brand and other high-performance tyres and an intense supporting advertising campaign through car magazines and other media. From here Yokohama India will broaden its focus to the wider market.

The wholly owned subsidiary, established with a paid-in capital of 50 million yen (£207,000), is part of the Japanese tyremaker’s wider expansion activities in the BRIC countries. Yokohama has already established 5 manufacturing and sales companies (2 tyre companies and 3 non-tyre product companies) and a tyre sales company under a holding company in China in addition to a tyre sales company in Russia. Yokohama India employs a total of 12 staff, including three Japanese nationals, and the parent company has “loaned” Fumihiro Nishi to head up the subsidiary from its New Delhi office.