Apollo goes digital to meet truck tire goals in Europe

BIRMINGHAM, England — Apollo Tyres Ltd. has developed a digital selling platform to support its launch of a truck and bus tire product range in Europe.

The ApolloTyresDirect.com portal will allow dealers and fleet managers to buy direct from Apollo using a "very transparent" pricing structuring and discounts for placing orders in advance, according to Benoit Rivallant, group head, global product management, commercial vehicle and off-highway tires at Apollo Tyres Pvt. Ltd. in London.

This innovative "go-to-market" approach will allow lower prices to the customer without compromising on quality, Mr. Rivallant said in a conversation with European Rubber Journal at the Commercial Vehicle Show 2017 in Birmingham.

Apollo, supported by the recent commissioning of its greenfield tire plant in Gyöngyöshalász, Hungary, is aiming at garnering a 5-percent share of the truck/bus tire market in Europe.

That plant is scheduled to start truck/bus tire production by year-end 2018 after passenger/light truck tire production ramps up, the company said. Until then, Apollo will supply the European market with tires imported from India.

"There is capacity [in Hungary] to make 675,000 [truck] tires a year, and if you do the math it is roughly 5-percnet market share in Europe," Mr. Rivallant said.

Apollo claims a 25-percent of the truck/bus radial market in India, which Mr. Rivallant said is the third largest truck tire market in the world, even larger than Europe.

"We have the technological products and we deliver best cost per kilometer in India," he said, "so we want to replicate that in Europe."

Over the last three years, he said, Apollo has developed and tested a new range of tires for the European truck/bus tire market, covering over 150 million miles across six European countries, in a wide range of applications, by 50 fleets and driver partners.

The company is targeting Germany, the United Kingdom and the Benelux region for these products, with other national markets to follow.

Mr. Rivallant acknowledged that Apollo is not that well known in the European truck/bus sector — hence the need for the digital "go-to-market" approach.

"This a la carte pricing means you take control of what you want," he explained. "If [you buy] a minimum [of] six tires we are going to give you a first discount. But if you buy up to 100 tires because we make savings on the logistics, we pass the savings on to you."

And, he added, if a company "buys in advance every month, you help us also better plan production, we pass the savings on to you."