With its newly commissioned Chennai facility on course to operate at the terminal capacity, Apollo Tyres Ltd is expecting to double the export of Apollo branded tyres to 100,000 pieces a month, to Europe, in a little over six months. Plans are also afoot to stretch the production of the Netherlands based Apollo Vredestein to 6.5 million tyres a year – over and above the expanded rated capacity of 6 million pieces.
With higher capacity in place, exports to Europe are increasing steadily and have touched 50,000 tyres a month this quarter. The company is hopeful to push the exports to 1,00,000 tyres a month, tentatively in the first quarter of 2012
With an EBIT (earnings before interest and tax) of 10 per cent, the European business was a major contributor to Apollo's consolidated profit of Rs 78 crore (Rs 53 crore) during the July-September 2011 quarter. According to the company, the early rush for winter tyres was a major reason behind the improved performance in Europe in the last quarter.
