INDIA’S TOP 500 COMPANIES452

Company RankingIncome Net

ProfitNet

Worth

114 407 168

APOLLO TYRES LIMITED

ATL, is the largest manufacturer of tyres in India, produced over 7 mn tyres in FY06 for truck, light truck, bus, passenger car and farm vehicles

HistoryThe first plant was commissioned in 1977

in technical collaboration with General Tires of the US, at Perambra, Kerala with a capacity of 49 MT/day. In 1991, ATL commissioned its second tyre plant at Vadodara with an installed capacity of 70 MT/day. Premier Tyres Ltd in Kalamassery (Kerala) was acquired by ATL in 1995. In FY96, the company set up a tubes and flaps plant in Ranjangaon, Pune.

Global FootprintATL became the first Indian tyre company

to complete a foreign acquisition in April 2006 when it bought 100% stake in Dunlop Tyres International (Pty) Ltd (Dunlop South Africa) in an all-cash deal for about Rs 2.9 bn (US$62 mn). Through Dunlop, ATL picked up a stake in National Tyre Services, Harare (Zimbabwe), a listed company engaged in the sale and trading of tyres and re-treading. Dunlop South Africa has a turnover of US$240 mn in FY05, and has two plants in South Africa and one in Zimbabwe and mainly caters to markets in Africa besides exports to Europe, Central Asia, South America and Australia.

BusinessApollo Tyres Ltd. is the market leader in the

Commercial Vehicle tyres segment for Truck, Bus and Light truck vehicles. The domination is strongest in the Replacement market (RM). Brands such as Hercules, Loadstar Super, Amar, XT-7, Milestar and Krishak Super are highly acclaimed products in the commercial and farm

segments. Apollo is the first Indian company to launch a radial tractor tyre called Farm King.In a short span of time, Amazer XL and the Storm range of Passenger Car Radials have also achieved a leadership position in the market. In Oct 2004, Apollo introduced the Acelere range, India’s first and only range of H-speed rated tubeless radials for passenger cars and the Hawkz for four-wheel vehicles. In recent times Apollo has been registering the fastest and highest growth in passenger car tyre sales within Indian industry.

The ATL range comprises tyres for Trucks, Light Trucks, Passenger Cars, Farm vehicles and Jeeps. Apollo has also successfully forayed into Tyre Plus products like its Alloy Wheels range called Wheelz and Retreading material called DuraTreads in a bid to become a total tyre solution provider to its customers.

ATL is an OEM supplier to vehicle manufacturers such as Tata Motors, Mahindra and Mahindra, Maruti, Ashok Leyland, TAFE, Eicher, Punjab Tractors and others. Its products are also sold to institutional buyers like State transport undertakings and government agencies

The company runs four manufacturing operations across the country - Perambra, Vadodara and Ranjangaon near Pune, besides the Kalamassery plant of PTL Enterprise Ltd (formerly Premier Tyres). Dunlop’s acquisition has enlarged Apollo’s manufacturing capacities to include facilities

Onkar S Kanwar Chairman & Managing Director

CEO SpeakThe challenges of the tyre industry are global in nature. Given that the industry is closely linked to two very sensitive commodities - natural rubber and crude oil - management of raw material costs will always remain a priority for the industry. This in turn leads to a related area of innovative R&D which can effectively lead to the replacement of some of the more scarce raw materials without compromising, and in fact leading to the creation of safer and more environmentally compatible products for all our customers.

While globally the industry faces a huge challenge in safe disposal of the used tyre, in India it is yet become a problem. However, the challenge for the Indian tyre industry lies in ensuring that we find ways of tackling this even before it becomes an environmental challenge for us and needs to be managed through legislation like it is in the West.

INDIA’S TOP 500 COMPANIES 453

in Durban and Ladysmith in South Africa and Bulawayo and Harare in Zimbabwe.

With over 4,200 dealerships in India, Apollo has the largest network amongst all Indian tyre companies. About 2,200 of these dealerships are exclusive outlets under the brand names Apollo Jewels, Apollo Tyre World, Apollo Radial World and Apollo Pragati Kendra.

ATL has strategic tieups with Reliance, DCM Shriram Consolidated Ltd (Haryali Store) and Triveni Engineering & Industries Ltd (Triveni Khushali Bazar), which improve its customer reach. These are crucial sales, distribution and service hubs. Dunlop SA also has a robust network of over 230 exclusive multi-brand dealerships called Dunlop Accredited Distributors or DAD across South Africa and Zimbabwe.

ATL has formed the GBC (Gold Boys Club) with top dealers. These important business partners have been given extensive training in claim settlement from time to time. This ensures speedy settlement of claims at the GBC counter itself. In order to mechanise the inspection process, ATL has introduced ‘Inspection spreaders’ a convenient mechanical device for ease of inspection.

As at the end of FY05, ATL has plans for expansion in passenger car and light truck radial tyre categories in the near future, increasing the capacity of the passenger car radials to 300,000 units per month and light truck radials to 50,000 units per month at its radial facility at Vadodara. Further expansions are proposed at both Vadodara & Kochi plants to achieve production capacity of 360 MT/day & 270 MT/day respectively.

OperationsProduction of automobile tyres stood at 7

mn units in FY06. A figure 18% higher than FY05. Production of automobile tubes at 6.2 mn units, 14% higher than in FY05. In terms of segment-wise growth, truck and bus tyres posted 11%, light trucks posted 8%, passenger car radials posted 34% and farm vehicles notched up 13%. Tyres accounted for 90% of ATL’s turnover in FY06, while tubes and flaps and alloy wheels accounted for the rest. The company aims to increase the production to 10,000 passenger car radial tyres from about 6,500 tyres per day at present. This massive operation is supported by 7,300 people that ATL employs across locations.

Research and DevelopmentATL’s R&D centre was started at Perambra,

Kochi and was shifted to Vadodara. All the

activities of the centre are extensively supported by a series of sophisticated equipment, which help the research scientists develop products as per customers’ specific requirements.

ATL has expertise in development of compounds for improved performance, raw material development, analytical research, reverse engineering, advanced design using CAD, finite element analysis (FEA) modeling of tyres, simulation testing of the designed product and product validity & reliability studies.

The R&D centre boasts of a pool of specialists from areas such as polymer science, rubber technology, inorganic & organic chemistry, textile technology, physics and mathematics.

IT InitiativesATL is the first tyre company in the world

to achieve BS7799 certification, which is a globally acclaimed standard for information security practices, developed by British Standards Institution.

ATL has successfully completed the implementation of SAP. The entire system has increased the efficiencies manifold.

Corporate Social Responsibility Apollo Tyres has a strong community

building programme. It runs HIV-AIDS awareness and prevention clinics for long distance truck drivers in Delhi, Udaipur, Kanpur and Ukkadam in Tamil Nadu. More clinics are in the pipeline. Workplace Intervention exercise for the Internal Audience has also taken off at all locations.

Apart from HIV/AIDS the organisation has been engaged in community development activities in and around manufacturing locations. At Limda village support was provided to upgrade the infrastructure. The company doctor visits the nearby villages once a week and an adult literacy programme was also undertaken.

ATL also supports the War Wounded Foundation actively engaged in providing alternative sources of livelihood.

The Year in ReviewFor the year to Mar 31, 2006 total income

was Rs 26.3 bn. Net profit stood at Rs 780 mn.

Chairman & Managing Director

Onkar S Kanwar

Joint Managing Director

N Kanwar

Directors

K J Thomas

K J Cyriac

MRB Punja

N N Kampani

R Kanwar

R Steinmetz

S Narayan

S S Shroff

S Sarkar

T Balakrishnan

U S Oberoi

Company Secretary

P N Wahal

Bankers

SBI, BoI, SB Mysore, SB Patiala,

ICICI Bank, UBI, Federal, Canara,

IDBI Bank, SCB, Citibank

Auditors

Fraser & Ross

APOLLO TYRES LTD

D&B D-U-N-S® No 91-536-7366

Registered Office6th Floor, Cherupushpam BuildingShanmugham RoadKochi - 682031Kerala