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When Tyres Go Digital!

2026-02-25

In an industry as close knit and niche as tyre manufacturing, where market is dictated by incumbent and key decision makers like original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and end user demand, growth is rarely accidental; It is driven by passion, shaped by disruption, and the adoption of digital technologies, focus on sustainability and innovation are key to staying competitive in this traditional yet evolving industry.

Rubber King’s journey reflects this evolution clearly. What began in 1982 as a trusted B2B supplier of butyl tubes, rubber flaps, and curing bladders gradually transformed into a diversified tyre manufacturer. This transformation gained momentum under the leadership of Devin Gawarvala, entrepreneurial founder, pivoting the company’s portfolio into solid and pneumatic tyres (B2C) entering a segment already dominated by global and domestic incumbents.

Breaking into this space was not easy. The automotive industry is brand oriented, conservative, and highly performance-driven. Instead of competing on scale and price, Rubber King chose to compete on thinking for the end user’s success who are benefited from the ecosystem and stakeholders for timely delivering tailor made solutions. Now, Rubber King is the preferred brand for performance-oriented users, key decision makers, and OEMs who wish for a reliable product providing value to their business or making their life better.

A key differentiator was the development of standalone products, built not just on specifications, but on consistent quality, application-specific performance, and dependable service. Equal importance was given to reimagining how tailor-made tyres reach customers, the aesthetics of tyres and overall look and feel of packaging and user experience unlike they had encountered before. By adopting innovative sales channels, including own e-commerce and online listing platforms Rubber King moved beyond conventional business models to engage directly with end users – bringing speed, transparency, and convenience rather than into a traditionally offline and dealer/retailer driven industry.

At the core of this transformation was a strong customer-centric approach, marked by enhanced pre-sale consultations and robust post-sale support and service. This philosophy laid the foundation for meaningful innovation.

Innovation at Rubber King has been largely driven by the initiatives of our founder, whose hands-on approach led to the introduction of several first-of-their-kind products for the industry. Most notably, the only Indian solid tyre guaranteed to last 5,000 hours, now used in mining segment, trailer applications and other intensive operations where downtime, and performance limitations were seeing with traditional pneumatic tyres.

This spirit of disruption also reshaped specific applications. In boom lift operations, where foam-filled tyres had long been the norm, Rubber King introduced solid tyres with aperture holes on the sidewall – offering improved performance while maintaining safety and durability. In tyre industry, rarely anyone went the route as Rubber King, as most companies got them know how from foreign MNCs or via technical collaborations and JVs. Today Rubber King is making Indian’s only colour tyre to match grass colour or equipment body or floor or to even match company colour. The materials used in colour tyres are higher than 70 per cent sustainable materials. All products are REACH compliant even where they are not mandatory.

To support this growth and complexity, digitisation became a natural next step. The implementation of Salesforce CRM with dealer login, HRMS, own e-commerce platform; SAP S4 HANA Cloud implementation made Rubber King the first tyre manufacturer in India to adopt this advanced SAP version and it helped streamline operations, improve decision-making, and elevate the overall customer experience. Today, Rubber King’s story is not just about tyres. It is about how drive fuels disruption, and digitisation turns it into sustainable growth.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Devin Gawarvala, Entrepreneurial Founder, Rubber King Tyres