During the second quarter of its financial year, the period from 1 June to 30 September, Apollo Tyres reported net sales of Rs 34.3 billion (£338.2 million), a slight increase on the same quarter a year earlier. Operating profit rose 16 per cent in the quarter to Rs 4.4 billion (£43.3 million), while net profit soared 44 per cent to Rs 2.2 billion (£21.7 million).
Netherlands-based wholesaler Heuver Tyrewholesale has appointed two new account managers for Germany, Detlev Schwarznecker and Sebastiaan Vlierman.
Vredestein has announced the appointment of Giovanni Masinelli as global brand head Vredestein, joining the global marketing team based in Apollo Vredestein’s London office. He will start operating in his new role on 1 November 2013, reporting to Marco Paracciani, chief marketing officer, global.
Vredestein has been rewarded for its Ultrac Vorti tyre introduction film at the 4th Cannes Corporate Media & TV Awards, one of the world’s most important awards competitions honouring excellence in the corporate audio-visual industry. Apollo Tyres’ film comprised a music video shot with a Google 360 degrees camera, exclusive composed music and a game available in the Apple store with Facebook integration.
Apollo Vredestein has been named one of The Netherland’s best employers. The Best Employer (Beste Werkgevers) 2013 awards were presented in Amsterdam on 8 October, and the tyre maker was ranked the third best employer in the 1,000+ employee category, behind airline KLM and non-profit organisation Stichting Buurtzorg.
While the phrase “one-stop shop” is somewhat overused in relation to tyre wholesaling, RH Claydon (RHC) business development & purchasing director John Parker argues that for his company it is thoroughly deserved. Now in its 60th year of trading as one of the UK’s independent nationwide premier specialist tyre wholesalers, RHC believes that, whether the need is for Consumer, Off-Highway or Truck applications, it has a wide range of brands and fitments within its extensive product portfolio to meet the requirements of service provider and end-user alike in the UK and Ireland market place.
The various local Vredestein Facebook pages were recently merged into a single global account in order to give the company’s products better international exposure, and Vredestein reports gaining more than 10,000 fans within the space of four weeks as a result. The new global page can be found at www.facebook.com/Vredestein.
This year, German motoring organsiation the ADAC got together with its Austrian and Swiss counterparts, the ÖAMTC and TCS, to produce its winter tyre test. Two sizes – 185/60 R15 T and 225/45 R17 H – were tested, and in both size categories Continental and Michelin received a “good” recommendation with their ContiWinterContact TS 850 and Alpin A4. Four products were rated “inadequate” by the testers.
Apollo Tyres Ltd has reported first quarter 2013-2014 financials including a 19 per cent rise in net profits to 1.66 billion rupees (22.8 million euros; US$29.7 million). The announcement followed the approval of a large dividend pay-out of 50 per cent per share (0.50 per equity share), for the year ended 31 March 2013.
In its 2012-13 annual report, Apollo Vredestein B.V. has reported net sales of €425.5 million, a result comparable with its 2011-12 sales of €426.9 million. In terms of volume, passenger car tyre sales declined four per cent, and agricultural tyres decreased 11 per cent. However, the company’s market share went up – the Dutch manufacturer says the total replacement consumer tyre market in Europe for the 2012-2013 financial year was down 13 per cent – and a better sales mix resulted in higher average sales prices.
Apollo Vredestein’s new European distribution centre recently entered service. Located in Staalsteden, near the company’s Enschede plant, the centre has the capacity to store 500,000 tyres. The company says the additional storage space is needed to accommodate growing production and sales volumes, combined with a wider product range.
On 18 June 2013 Apollo Vredestein Introduced its latest UHP winter tyre. The Wintrac xtreme S was designed in cooperation with Italian design house Giugiaro; a partnership that also led to the success of products such as the Ultrac Sessanta and Ultrac Vorti. To celebrate 15 years of cooperation, the introduction of the Wintrac xtreme S took place in Turin, the home of Italdesign Giugiaro and the hub of the automotive industry. The “style” element also explains why the latest version of the xtreme features an “S” in its name.
Following the agreement reached between Apollo Tyres and Sumitomo Rubber Industries about the future of the Dunlop brand in Africa, Apollo Tyres South Africa (Pty) Limited has initiated an investment programme at its Dunlop Zimbabwe Limited manufacturing company. The Dunlop Zimbabwe plant in Bulawayo will no longer produce Dunlop tyres and is apparently being tooled up to manufacture the Vredestein brand. Six new presses have been purchased for the Bulawayo plant so far and a further 18 are expected.
With the ink still drying on Apollo Tyre’s agreement to purchase Cooper Tire and Rubber, on 27 June Tyres & Accessories met with Apollo vice chairman and managing director Neeraj Kanwar at the company's new global marketing office in central London in order to get the inside line on the deal, the impending integration and the strategy behind the purchase.
In 2010, Apollo's owners, chairman Onkar Kanwar and vice-chairman and managing director Neeraj Kanwar, told the world that the company was aiming to break into the global top 10…at least. At the time this announcement was made you could be forgiven for thinking such a proclamation was either an exercise in hyperbole or in corporate goal setting. And why not? There's nothing wrong with aiming high, as many of the world's fastest growing tyre companies are clearly doing. After all, as the saying goes, “he who aims at nothing hits it”.
But with all the speculation that surrounded the company's decision to engage in takeover talks with Cooper at the end of 2012, the fact that the deal has now been agreed arguably isn't as much of a surprise as the speed with which the top 10 goal has been attained. Early indications suggest that the amalgamated Apollo/Cooper will be the seventh largest tyre company on earth. So what’s next? The exclusive club that is dominated and fiercely defended by the big five? Or, as is more likely, a period of integration and consolidation while the dust settles?
Shares in Cooper Tire & Rubber have fared well since news of the tyre maker’s impending acquisition was announced. When the NYSE closed on 13 June the share price stood at US$33.80, an increase of some 38 per cent on the start of the week. Future owner Apollo Tyres has not enjoyed such a positive reaction to the news, however. By midday on 14 June (Indian standard time), shares in Apollo Tyres were trading at Rs 67.75, down more than 26 per cent since the deal was made public.
If you would like the latest news from the Chinese tyre industry in Chinese, visit our partner site TyrepressChina.com. Or click below to continue on Tyrepress.