Chinese car manufacturer, Beijing Auto Group is “poised” to sign a tyre production joint venture with India’s Apollo Tyres, according to local news sources. Livemint.com cited Beijing Auto chairman Xu Heyi as saying the proposed venture would have an annual production capacity of about one million tyres. The factory will reportedly be built in the […]
Apollo Tyres has announced details of its recruitment drive in Hungary for its soon to be built Greenfield facility at Gyöngyöshalász. Apollo plans to appoint 100 technicians and fresh graduate engineers soon, with a second drive to recruit a further 150 people in the second half of 2015. Although production will only start at the beginning of 2017, the first batch of employees for the Hungarian factory will be contracted in the beginning of July 2015. Besides technicians and engineers, the company is also seeking applications for various functional areas including administration and logistics.
Apollo Tyres has appointed Atulya Sharma its chief legal counsel. In this role he will be based in the company’s corporate office in Gurgaon, India and report to vice-chairman and managing director Neeraj Kanwar.
As reported on 6 February, Raj Banerji has succeeded Sunam Sarkar as chief financial officer at Apollo Tyres Ltd. Commenting on Banerji’s appointment, company vice-chairman and managing director Neeraj Kanwar said: “We are on the cusp of our next phase of growth globally. Having a person like Raj join our global team at this crucial time, with a strong international experience, will provide further impetus to this growth, and at the same time, contribute to the organisation’s overall financial health and stability.”
Apollo Tyres Ltd has reported consolidated revenue for the nine months (April to December) of FY15 closed at s 96.270 billion rupees (£1.018 billion; 1.369 billion euros; 1.552 billion). Pre-tax profits (EBITDA), without exceptional items, stood at 14.72 billion rupees (£155.682 million; 209.404 million euros; $237.372), up 0.9 billion rupees compared to the same period […]
Cooper Tire & Rubber Company has appointed ex Apollo Verdestein European president Luis Ceneviz as its managing director – Latin America Tire Operations effective 1 March 2015. In this new role, Ceneviz will be responsible for the company’s business throughout Latin America, including Central and South America, as well as Mexico, where Cooper has a sales and marketing organization and participates in a joint venture tyre manufacturing operation near Guadalajara. He will report to Brad Hughes, Cooper’s chief operating officer.
Apollo Tyres is reportedly in discussions with several vehicle manufacturers in Europe regarding the supply of original equipment tyres. Speaking with Indian publication The Financial Express, vice-chairman and managing director Neeraj Kanwar said that the list of companies the tyre makers is in talks with includes BMW, Volkswagen and General Motors.
The eighth annual “Asian Essen”, Reifen China took place at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre in the first week of December, with some of the Chinese tyre industry’s major players rubbing shoulders for the last time in 2014. The European side of the Sino-German partnership behind the annual show, Messe Essen stated that it expected the presence of around 120 exhibitors in hall W1 and 15,000 trade visitors. This latter figure, unconfirmed at the time of writing, takes into account the other three-quarters of the twin exhibition; RubberTech China 2014 and the International Exhibition on Rubber & Elastomer, led by the China United Rubber Corporation, comprised around 500 exhibitors across another three halls (W2-4). Messe Essen CEO, Oliver P Kuhrt stressed the importance of the ‘Reifen’ brand’s presence in China, stating in his introduction to the show that it “stands for the success of a fair made in Essen extending across borders”. With about two thirds of the exhibitors at May’s Reifen 2014 visiting Essen from outside Germany, Messe Essen also noted the importance of Reifen China in recruiting Asian participants, whose attention the exhibition organiser has drawn in Shanghai.
The legal dispute between Apollo Tyres and Cooper Tire & Rubber has now ended following the final dismissal of litigation filled by Cooper Tire against Apollo.
Martha Desmond has been appointed Apollo Tyres’ new chief human resources officer. She replaces Tapan Mitra, who retires from the role at the end of the year, and is based in the company’s office in London, reporting to vice-chairman and managing director Neeraj Kanwar. As chief human resources officer, she takes on responsibility for all aspects of human resources within the organisation. Desmond has also been appointed a member of Apollo’s Management Board.
The largest loader tyre produced in India to-date, the Apollo AWL 822, has been launched at the International Mining and Machinery Exhibition (IMME) 2014 show in Kolkata. The AWL 822 is a size 45/65-45 L5 tyre that contains 1,300 kilogrammes of rubber, 700 kilogrammes of carbon black and silica, 200 kilogrammes of nylon fabric and 300 kilogrammes of other rubber chemicals. The tyre is produced at Apollo Tyres’ Limda plant, in India’s Gujarat state.
Apollo Tyres says it is “a matter of great pride” for the company that it has been named the top automotive ancillary company and 24th overall in the ranking of corporate and social responsibility carried out by India’s leading business newspaper. Hailed as a ‘definitive listing’, The Economic Times’ ET Corporate Dossier, in cooperation with Futurescape and IIM Udaipu, has published its India’s Best Companies For CSR 2014.
Asia is an enticing part of the world for many tyre makers, including Apollo Tyres, which has stated its desire to make inroads there. A small but significant step it has taken into the region is the relocation of incumbent president and chief financial officer Sunam Sarkar to Singapore. Sarkar’s arrival will likely be followed by the establishment of an office in the city state, and – although Apollo hasn’t yet made any official announcement to this effect – he seems the logical choice to oversee the operation set up there. A secondary function of Apollo’s new presence in Singapore will be to aid its sourcing of raw materials in Asia; the subject of rubber is a high profile one for tyre makers in India, and despite the higher duty affixed to natural rubber compared to finished tyres, manufacturers rely heavily on imports of this raw material.
In the run up to this year’s World Cup, Continental released limited edition car and bus tyres featuring the FIFA World Cup logo. We didn’t see these tyres here in the UK or in Europe, but anyone looking for football-themed rubber needn’t go without; the latest line from Apollo Tyres may be just the answer. In its capacity as official tyre partner to a certain Old Trafford-based football club, the tyre maker has launched a new Manchester United branded tyre. And to ensure the new range has a strong Manchester flavour, local mobile tyre fitting specialist Event Tyres has been granted exclusive UK supply for the Apollo Manchester United tyre.
As reported on 17 September, Apollo Tyres’ South African subsidiary, Apollo Tyres Africa Proprietary Limited – the residual operation remaining after the sale of the main business to Sumitomo Rubber Industries in 2013 – voluntarily initiated Business Rescue Proceedings on 15 September 2014 as per the provisions of the South Africa Companies Act. In its second quarter notes, The company has now submitted a Business Rescue Plan to the South African Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC).
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