Apollo: 30% Increase in Exports to Europe Planned

At present Apollo Tyres exports 50,000 Apollo branded tyres a month to Europe from its factory in Vadodara, India, yet company ‘sources’ claim this quantity will increase markedly in the coming months. According to Indian financial journal the Hindu Business Line, sources expect a 30 per cent increase in the monthly shipment of tyres to Europe, with 65,000 units a month arriving here by March- April 2011.

“There is encouraging customer feedback for our (Apollo branded) tyres in Europe,” said Apollo Tyres chairman Onkar S. Kanwar. “We will give a big push to our marketing initiative once supply constraints are stabilised.” Marketing plans include a new campaign strategy; Apollo has appointed French advertising and communications firm Publicis Groupe to handle this, and the resulting campaign is expected to be rolled out at the end of winter. In the meantime a “soft launch” has been held for the two Apollo cold weather products sold in Europe, the Hawkz Winter and the Acelere Winter.

Supplying sufficient quantities of tyres to the European market has been an issue for the Indian manufacturer to deal with since the Apollo brand’s launch here in June, and the Hindu Business Line reports the reaching of full operational capacity at the company’s Chennai plant during the next fiscal year will help towards this. The Chennai factory will supply tyres to the Indian market, which the financial journal notes will free the Vadodara facility to direct “most” of its 18,000 tyres per day towards Europe – a quantity far beyond the 65,000 tyres per month stated by company sources. The completion of expansion work at the Apollo Vredestein plant in the Netherlands will also provide extra capacity for the European market.