Bridgestone running 3 shifts to meet demand
Bridgestone, the world’s second largest tyre maker, which reached the pre-Covid sales level last year, is running on full three shifts at its two factories in Indore and Pune.
The Indian arm of the Japanese tyre manufacturer said in the OctoberDecember 2020 quarter it had clocked a sales growth of 15 per cent.
Bridgestone, which is among the top three passenger car tyre makers in India, competes with market leader MRF, Appolo, JK and Ceat, among others.
“The worst is behind us and we are betting big growth for our brand as well as the tyre industry in the country,” Parag Satpute, managing director at Bridgestone India told Financial Chronicle. The company produces
41,000 passenger vehicle tyres and 2,000 tyres for medium and heavy trucks and buses daily. It has invested Rs 2,000 crore over the five year between
2017 and 2021.
He said even during the Covid pandemic its offthe-road, or OTR, business of supplying tyres for the mining and construction business remained steady.
“This momentum of growth is continued in January and February of the first quarter of this calendar year,” Satpute pointed out, adding that both replacement market and retail were growing.
He said both its factories in Pune and Indore, employing more than 3,000, were running on three shifts to cater to growing demands.
He said since all tyres were placed in restricted category by the central government since June 2020, banning import of any tyres from China and other countries, it had given fillip to made-inIndia tyres.
“Our passenger vehicle tyre business is growing fastest as the replacement tyre market is seeing strong growth after imports were banned,” Satpute said. “In fact, normalcy returned in our business last September.”
Satpute said as agriculture was least affected during Covid pandemic, rural economy grew faster, fuelling vehicle growth in tier- II and III towns and cities. “Now there is more growth here which is higher than the Metros,” he said, adding that it would likely grow faster than the urban market.
Bridgestone has launched its first concept store, Bridgestone Select+. With these concept stores, the firm aims to create higher engagement with consumers at tyre services.
Starting with Pune, Bridgestone plans to introduce these stores in multiple cities by the end of this year.
The process is enabled through an interactive digital kiosk where customers can pick between Bridgestone's array of choices. The store also offers customer demonstrations to understand the impact that each of the tyre services provides and helps customers get the best out of their tyres, he added.