Apollo Tyres launches global R&D centre

Apollo Tyres Ltd on Monday announced that it has opened its global R&D centre in Enschede in the Netherlands. The facility will serve as a hub for the development and testing of car and van tyres for all product brands — Apollo, Vredestein and Dunlop (32 countries in Africa) — of the company.

Apollo Tyres Global R&D will start operations with over 100 R&D specialists from across the world, including 20 car tyre specialists from India and South Africa. This will later be scaled up to nearly 150 people.

“The global R&D centre is an important milestone in our journey to become a $6 billion tyre company by 2016. This world class centre will play a key role in bringing cutting-edge technology and innovation in the development of car and van tyres of the future,” said Onkar S Kanwar, Chairman, Apollo Tyres Ltd, at the inauguration of the centre.

Recently, Apollo Tyres had restructured its R&D team, across its three key geographies, to create synergy and greater alignment to the company’s growth aspirations; and to generate speed and relevance while entering new markets. The new structure connects the entire organisation via two major R&D centres — for commercial purposes and car tyres.

In line with the strategy, the company is bringing together its R&D resources comprising almost 250 people in Africa, Europe and India to create two global R&D hubs — Enschede, the Netherlands for car and van tyres, and Chennai, for commercial vehicle tyres.

The two locations were chosen based on its present and potential markets. The West Asia and Asia make nearly 59 per cent of the global market for commercial vehicle tyres, while Europe and North America represent 51 per cent of the car tyre market. Both R&D departments will be in close contact with OEMs and replacement clients, test centres, raw material suppliers and research institutes.

Neeraj Kanwar, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, said, “Going forward, R&D will continue to be the cornerstone of the company’s vision, and plan to ramp up the R&D spend to 3 per cent of the total sales revenue.”

Apollo has taken a decision to centralise its R&D activities for car tyres in Europe. Given that Europe is one of the most advanced automotive markets in the world, the facility will help Apollo to further step up efforts to build tyres for future. It will also strengthen the company’s relationship with the global OEMs.