Further strengthening its leadership position in truck and bus radials (TBR), JK Tyre & Industries Ltd., part of the $2.5 billion JK Organisation, has reported that its sales of truck / bus radials (TBR) have crossed the three million mark in May 2011, beating all its competitors by a huge margin.Commenting on the achievement, Dr. Raghupati Singhania, Vice Chairman & Managing Director, JK Tyre & Industries Ltd., said: “We would like to thank our valued customers for helping us achieve this feat. We were the pioneers of radials in the country. Over the years, we have consistently improved our product performance and pre- & after-sales service ensuring maximum customer satisfaction. We are the market leaders in truck / bus radials with a market share of more than 42 per cent. Our radials are fondly called by our customers as ‘the Baadshah of Radials’. Our greenfield facility in Chennai will also be rolling out truck / bus radials soon. This will be our second truck / bus radial manufacturing facility after Mysore. This is just the beginning of our journey as a top class radial manufacturer.”
According to him, JK Tyre initiatives like CRM, fleet management, tyre care & service centres, customer education through plant visits and fleet conferences have helped maintain the company market leadership.
JK Tyre continues to build its reputation as a forerunner in the field of technological innovation and breakthroughs. The expanded annual capacity of truck / bus radial tyres at 8 lakh tyres at the Mysore plant has further strengthened the company’s commanding position in this growing segment. This plant is now being further expanded to one million tyres per annum.
Recently, all the five plants of JK Tyre & Industries were recognized by the Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance for achieving the Total Productive Maintenance.
The company started manufacturing tyres in 1977, with a capacity of 5 lakh tyres per annum and has grown multifold over the years to its present capacity of 158 lakh tyres per annum, along with Tornel, a leading tyre manufacturer in Mexico. Currently the company has eight plants – five in India and three in Mexico through Tornel. The company’s five modern plants in India are at strategic locations in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and three plants in Karnataka and one greenfield project coming up in Tamil Nadu.
The Chennai plant is being set up in a record time of one year for which the ‘bhoomi puja’ took place on September 5, 2010. This state-of-the-art plant set up at an investment of around Rs. 1,500 crores, will manufacture high quality radial tyres for trucks, buses and cars for the domestic market. With this new plant, the company is aiming to expand its business in the southern region, particularly in Chennai popularly known as the Detroit of Asia.
