TVS Srichakra to commission Uttarakhand tyre plant in September

The Rs.576 crore-turnover two and three wheeler tyre manufacturer TVS Srichakra Ltd will be commissioning its 3.6 million-tyres per annum plant at Uttarakhand in September, an official said.

Company director P. Vijayaraghavan told IANS: "The Uttarakhand plant at Pantnagar will be primarily to serve the after-sales market in northern and western Indian markets, thereby cutting down the freight costs for the company."

Declining to share the company's ratio of supplies to vehicle manufacturers versus retail sales due to competitive reasons, he said: "The gap between sales to original equipment manufacturers (OEM) and the after market sales is fast reducing."

The company plans an aggressive brand building strategy to make further inroads into the after sales market in the forthcoming months.

According to Vijayaraghavan, TVS Srichakra is the largest original equipment supplier to two wheeler manufacturers in India. It is now focussing on tubeless tyres.

Staying away from the growing four-wheeler car tyre market on the ground the segment is witnessing intense competition, TVS Srichakra rolls out tyres for off the road vehicles, mainly for export market from its 11-million units per annum parent plant at Madurai, around 450 km from here.

Meanwhile, the company closed its first quarter of FY10 with a turnover and net profit of Rs.157.46 crore and Rs.6.84 crore respectively, as against Rs.136.23 crore and Rs.2.29 crore for the same period the year before.

While the raw material cost for first quarter has come down by Rs.7.54 crore as compared the previous year's first quarter, Vijayaraghavan said: "Now the prices are on the rise as compared to the fourth quarter of FY09. Prices of natural and synthetic rubber have gone up by around 20 percent and 12 percent respectively."

Last updated on Aug 1^st, 2009 at 17:26 pm IST--IANS