Harinder Singh, CEO & MD, Yokohama India Private Ltd
Yokohama India, the subsidiary of Japan’s Yokohama Rubber Company Ltd., having already initiated capacity expansion from 2.5 million tyres each year to 4.5 million models by 2025, is now eyeing 5th position (from the present seventh position) in the passenger car radial tyres phase of the Indian market that’s at present dominated by Apollo Tyres, CEAT and MRF.
“In the last 3 years we have doubled our sales to close to 2.1 million units. This year we are targeting a 50% increase over the last year’s number and should be touching around 3 million units. We are planning to be the 5th largest player by the end of 2025,” stated Harinder Singh, CEO & MD, Yokohama India Private Ltd.
He stated the corporate, which has up to now invested near $154 million has introduced capacity addition with an extra funding of $82 million. This capacity addition of car radial tyres is being made at Visakhapatnam the place the corporate runs a plant to fabricate off-highway tyres.
After this 2nd plant for car radials goes on stream in 2025, the corporate, which largely caters to the alternative market at present, will aggressively provide to OEMs [car manufacturers].
“Now in India we have not been very aggressive on the OEM side because of the production constraint. Currently, the after-market [replacement] demand is pretty high. But as we are moving towards the 4.5 million unit journey, OE is going to play a very important role with us,” Mr. Singh stated.
The firm at present having near 2,800 sellers and working a community of greater than 550 branded shops referred to as the Yokohama Club Network (YCN) is planning to extend its dealership by 20% throughout this yr and one other 20% in the approaching two years, the CEO stated.
“Our biggest focus is on the branded stores. At the end of 2019 we had 100 stores, today we have over 550 stores which contribute close to 60% to the total volume we sell. So they are a very important and integral part of our network,” Mr. Singh added.
Apart from tyres for passenger automobiles and off-roaders, the corporate is planning to enter into the truck and bus radial tyres phase in India. “We have plans to start selling those by next year. Now the development of TBR is under process. We are developing TBR specifically for the Indian market. And this will be produced from the Off-highway tyre plant,” he additional stated.
On the Indian tyre market he stated, “The tyre industry never had a great time. If you look at the auto industry also it is booming. An integral part of the car industry, I do see a very strong future for the passenger car segment. We are pretty excited about that, and I do think as Yokohama we are ready for the maximum share of that,” he stated.
