Having cut its football sponsorship teeth on a deal with Manchester United in 2013 and then extending its activities in the UK and Europe, Apollo Tyres has now entered into its very first football sponsorship agreement in its home market. For the 2017-18 Hero Indian Super League season, Apollo Tyres has announced its association with Chennai-based club Chennaiyin FC, and will serve as principal sponsor.
A patent has been granted in India for a special grade of epoxidised natural rubber (ENR) jointly developed by the research and development team at Apollo Tyres and the Rubber Research Institute of India. The tyre rubber compound was granted patent no. 287630 by the Government of India’s Patent Office on 21 September.
Higher sales didn’t lead to higher profits for Apollo Tyres in the first half of its current financial year. In the six months to 30 September, the tyre maker’s revenue rose 5.0 per cent to Rs 66.8 billion (£784.1 million) and operating profit stood at Rs 6.7 billion (£78.6 million). Net profit, at Rs 2.3 billion (£27.0 million), was down 59.1 per cent from the first half of the previous financial year.
Over the past six years, Apollo Tyres has grown in Europe at a rate of ten to 11 per cent, twice the growth rate seen within the premium tyre segment, and the company attributes a significant part of this healthy growth to its Vredestein brand.
Following the start of production at its Gyöngyöshalász plant in Hungary last quarter, Apollo Tyres is on its way to almost doubling European passenger car tyre production capacity over the coming year and a half. Speaking with analysts and investors last week after the release of Apollo’s FY2018 financial results, chief financial officer Gaurav Kumar confirmed that the facility in Hungary is expected to reach a daily capacity of 16,000 car tyres by the second half of FY2019 – in other words, sometime between September next year and the end of March 2019. This will give Apollo Tyres a total daily capacity of up to 35,000 passenger car tyres at its two European plants – and more than a third of output in Gyöngyöshalász may be earmarked for OEM customers.
High raw material prices strongly influenced the bottom line at Apollo Tyres Ltd in the three months to 30 June 2017. Although net sales, at Rs 32.58 billion (£391.0 million), were in line with those achieved in the corresponding quarter a year earlier, operating profit declined 50.3 per cent to Rs 2.82 billion (£33.8 million) and net profit was down 72.0 per cent to Rs 880.3 million (£10.6 million).
With the introduction of its two-wheel tyre range, Apollo Tyres now offers its full portfolio in Sri Lanka. As is the case with the company’s other products, the two-wheel range is being distributed within the country by sole national distributor Ideal Wheels & Tyres.
Major Indian vehicle manufacturer Mahindra & Mahindra bestowed its ‘Business Partner of the Year’ award upon Apollo Tyres at its recent annual suppliers meeting. The award, the highest recognition given to any supplier for overall outstanding performance during the entire financial year, was accepted by Satish Sharma, Apollo Tyres’ Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa region president, and Sandeep Mathur, the tyre maker’s head of OEM and Institutional Business.
The Board of Directors of Apollo Tyres Ltd has recommended a dividend payout of 300 per cent, or Rs 3 per share, after approving the company’s financial results for the 2016-17 financial year. Total revenues for the 12-month period ending 31 March 2017 increased 10.9 per cent to Rs 143.2 billion (£1.7 billion), while consolidated revenue came to Rs 130.6 billion (£1.6 billion). Net profit declined 2.1 per cent to Rs 11.0 billion (£131.5 million).
The opening of Apollo Tyres’ Gyöngyöshalász plant, 100km east of Budapest, marks a significant event for both the company’s global aspirations and the Indian tyre industry – the 72 hectare greenfield factory, begun in April 2015, is the first inaugurated by an Indian tyre company to come online outside the domestic market. The importance was reflected in the event itself, with some of the plant’s cavernous warehousing housing around 1,300 guests, among whose number was the prime minister of Hungary, Viktor Orban, who declared Apollo’s sixth global tyre manufacturing plant – its second in Europe after the existing Netherlands facility acquired alongside Vredestein – open on 7 April.
When Apollo Tyres launched its European truck tyre range at the CV Show last week, the company did so with a pre-planned retreading strategy in mind as well as the headlining “disruptive” digital media strategy.
Apollo Tyres has thrown its hat into the European truck and bus radial ring and introduced a complete range for our regions. Furthermore, the company is only distributing these products online, through its own ApolloTyresDirect.com portal. The company is the first, and so far, only tyre manufacturer to use the direct online approach to market here, and it says pricing on the site is completely transparent and free from hidden costs or complicated deals.
Apollo Tyres has introduced a new 4×4/SUV tyre jointly developed by its Global R&D Centres in India and the Netherlands. The new Apollo Apterra HT2 has now been launched in India and is also scheduled to be released in European markets in the near future.
Several leading Indian tyre makers are said to be bidding to acquire Falcon Tyres Ltd., the company that supplies the Dunlop tyre brand in Indian market. The Economic Times reports that Apollo Tyres, JK Tyre and Ceat Tyres are amongst the leading bidders.
Apollo Tyres is reportedly developing tyres for India’s defence forces that will be manufactured at the company’s facility in Chennai, India. The Chennai facility currently produces 16,000 passenger car tyres and 6,000 truck-bus radials per day, according to Apollo. The company is in the process of doubling the truck-bus radial capacity at the factory to 12,000 tyres per day.
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