FCC

BKT aims for 10% of India’s market share of highway tyre manufacturing

2022-05-31

With revenue close to Rs 10 billion in India, Balkrishna Industries (BKT), an Indian multinational group and a global player in the off-the-road (OTR) tyre market, has announced a brownfield ramp-up of its Bhuj plant to increase tyre and carbon black capacity, including advance carbon black, and modernisation and automation of existing facilities. Rajiv Poddar, Joint Managing Director, elaborates upon the company’s strategies to overcome challenges and the growing market in a conversation with Pratap Padode, Editor-in-Chief, CW.

As the pandemic is clearing up, can you share the challenges and opportunities that BKT has encountered?
The past two years have been unprecedented and challenging, both physically and mentally. There was so much anxiety among people as they spoke about the new normal. There have been many changes and we may take some time to adjust. Luckily, we are back in the real world and things have eased out. It was different for us in the past two years. First, we had to make many changes in our manufacturing site. There was social distancing at canteens, insistence on hygiene and sanitisation and the need to transport them from their home to the factory site. These were the factors we had to overcome; now that things are back to normal, people have adjusted. Today, we are at our highest from the pre-pandemic. We are nearly about…