JK Tyre’s focus on bettering light weight tyres for e-com vehicles
Aims to double sales of e-commerce vehicle tyres to 3 lakh units over the next 12 to 18 months, from 1.50 lakh units sold over the last 2 years
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Hyderabad: JK Tyre and Industries Ltd on Friday said it will be constantly expanding its product portfolio by adding new variants. In this direction, the company will now focus on bringing in more energy- efficient and light weight tyres for commercial vehicles used by e-commerce players.
Currently JK Tyre has 500 SKU’s of tyres available in the commercial vehicle category. The Company launched basic XM series of tyres, two years back, for e-commerce vehicles, periodically adding new variants into this series.
Speaking on introducing new variant of tyre for e-commerce vehicles, Anuj Kathuria, president (India), JK Tyre and Industries Ltd, said: “Vehicles used by e-commerce players require extra mileage. These vehicles run upto 20,000 km a month. For them JK Tyre has two SKUs which give up to 25 per cent extra life. As this is a constantly evolving space, we are now working on new material/compounds which will further help us improve the overall performance of the tyre. Along with increasing the mileage, the new variant will be more energy-efficient and lighter in weight.”
Kathuria said over the last two years, the company sold 1.50 lakh basic XM series tyres in the replacement market. The target is to double this number over the next 12 to 18 months, he added.
On how will JK Tyre double its above mentioned sales number, Kathuria said the company is planning to add 50 Truck Wheels (specialised service centres) to the current 100 Truck Wheel centres, and double the number of pit stops, in the next 12 to 18 months across India. They have a network of around 350 pit stops and Truck Wheels. JK Tyre has a dealer network of around 4,000 in the commercial vehicle space. They also engage with over 1,400 fleet managing companies, many of whom are into the e-commerce vehicle category, he said.
Earlier this year, JK Tyre had announced an investment of Rs 1,400 crore - Over the next two years, Rs 1,000 crore will be invested into its Passenger Car Radial (PCR) space and Rs 400 crore in the Truck and Bus Radial (TBR) or commercial vehicle category, in a phased manner. The funds will be utilised to enhance manufacturing capacity. “In the TBR space we will add 10 per cent to the current manufacturing capacity of 45 lakh units of tyres per annum,” Kathuria said.
