Govind Rubber expands with India plant, Netherlands subsidiary

Tyre and tube manufacturer Govind Rubber Limited has announced an 8.5 billion rupee (£97 million) expansion plan for its. GRL is setting up a Greenfield project in Gujurat, near Dahej, taking up most of the capital investment (approximately 7.5 billion rupees/£86 million). Chairman and managing director Vinod Poddar said “The plant will have a production capacity of 225 tonnes per day,”

GRL also set up its wholly owned subsidiary, GRL B.V. in Netherlands, which comprises office and warehousing facilities. It is designed as the company’s European tyre hub, with GRL marketing its full range of tyres and tubes in Europe through this network. The Indian company has also entered into a specialised rubber manufacturing joint venture at Busan, South Korea, and is further expanding into manufacturing two and three-wheeler tyres at its current Ludhiana location.

GRL already has a subsidiary, GRL Tires, in Alwar, Rajathan, which will further expand into specialty agricultural, industrial and OTR tyre production. The company plans to distribute these products into niche European, American, African, Middle Eastern and CIS markets. The company will invest a billion rupees (£12 million) in the project’s initial phase, it says, with the Gujarat plant following later, creating a production capacity of 225 tons per day, GRL estimates.

The company achieved gross turnover of 3.55 billion rupees in financial year 2011-2012. Net profit rose 117 per cent at 110.9 million rupees against 50.8 million rupees in the previous year.