Apollo Looks to Double Two-Wheeler Tyre Sales Volume This Fiscal

Apollo Tyres is looking to nearly double sales volume of its two-wheeler tyres to around two lakh units a month this fiscal, according to company Chief Financial Officer Gaurav Kumar.

The firm, which had forayed into two-wheeler tyres in March last year, will not attempt to gain with price under cutting and expects profitability of the segment to continue to "remain decent".

"We ended last year at a level of close to one lakh tyres (two-wheeler) per month that is going up and we would attempt to nearly double it this year," Kumar told analysts.

He was responding to a query on how Apollo Tyres was looking at its overall profitability when the share of two- wheeler tyres goes up in its overall product portfolio.

"The profitability of two-wheelers (tyres) will continue to remain decent but will really be a point to comment on, once we reach a certain scale," Kumar said.

He further said: "Our two-wheeler volumes are going up from previous year, so we continue to grow as per plan and we will continue to see those volumes growing. However, we will not play it on a pricing level to just gain volume".

The two-wheeler tyre volumes still need "to become somewhat substantial before we start saying, what the profitability level is", he said. In terms of pricing and some of the other related cost associated with it, the two-wheeler tyres will still be a profitable segment, he added.

"The only part which the current scale would not support is the brand building cost," Kumar said. The company sells its Apollo Acti series of tyres for motorcycles and scooters in the aftermarket.