Four major tyre brands — Apollo, Dunlop, Vredestein and Regal — are the mainstay of Apollo Tyres South Africa's growth into Africa and South America.
The company is owned by Apollo Tyres Limited, a global tyre manufacturing company with head offices in India. Apollo Tyres South Africa's head office is in Durban.
Apollo Tyres started its expansion drive in 2006 when it acquired the South African company Dunlop Tyres International (since renamed Apollo Tyres South Africa) and the Vredestein brand in the Netherlands in 2009.
Apollo Tyres has long envisaged future development throughout the African and South American continents. The group has since invested about R600-million in its operations in South Africa, the bulk of which was spent on new equipment and technology at its manufacturing plants. The company has four manufacturing operations: two plants in South Africa (Durban and Ladysmith) and two plants in Zimbabwe (Bulawayo and Harare).
With an annual turnover of more than R2-billion, Apollo Tyres South Africa (ATSA) is able to produce almost 400 000 truck and bus tyres and 3.5-million passenger tyres, at full capacity, each year across all vehicle categories. This includes tyres for passenger vehicles, light trucks and truck-buses, off-road tyres and specialty tyres for use in the mining and agriculture industries.
There are currently four major tyre players in South Africa and a market of about 14-to 16-million tyres. Apollo's South African and Zimbabwean operations employ 1 700 and 500 staff respectively.
Superb credentials — such as the company's quality certifications including ISO 9001, TS 16949, In-Metro and ECE (E-Mark), ISO 18001 safety certification and ISO 14001 environmental certification — facilitate Apollo Tyres's exports to 32 markets in Africa alone. The Ladysmith plant opened a new R300-million component preparation unit in 2012.
The primary objective has been to improve quality and productivity to enable the factory to increase tyre production from 1 000 tyres a day to 1 200 tyres a day in Durban, and from 11 000 tyres a day to 13 000 tyres a day in Ladysmith.
ATSA says its smart mix of cutting-edge technology, internationally qualified and experienced personnel and superior machinery are the foundations of its success.
The result has been zero-emissions manufacturing with three distinct key factors: expert ergonomic consideration for increased productivity, a commitment to high safety standards and advanced automation.
In January, Riaz Haffejee took over the position of chief executive from Dr Luis Ceneviz, who had held the position since 2006, when the Apollo Group first bought out the company.
Haffejee, a mechanical engineer and MBA graduate, joined the company from Vodacom. He has previously held positions with automotive giants Ford and BMW and has over 14 years' experience in the motor industry.
Haffejee says that the Apollo Group has doubled in size every three years and has firm strategies to grow its market share and become one of the world's top 10 tyre manufacturers in the near future.
As part of the Apollo Tyres Group global set-up, the South African operation was tasked with targeting the African and Latin American markets.
The company's main Indian base concentrates on the Asian, Australian and Middle Eastern markets, while its base in the Netherlands, through its ownership of Vredestein, services the European market. There are exports between these regions in the group, but each hub focuses on its core markets.
As head of ATSA, Haffejee takes care of expanding the business on two continents.
Dunlop is a major brand for the company, especially in South Africa and the rest of Africa. In regions where ATSA does not own the rights to sell Dunlop, for instance in South America, the company exports the Regal branded tyres. Latin America is a key market for Apollo Tyres, which recently opened an office in São Paulo, Brazil.
ATSA is growing the trade between the countries in the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (Brics) economic bloc. Haffejee says that the company is influenced by three of the Brics nations, because South Africa is a proxy to accessing the larger African market.
As part of its growth initiative, ATSA plans to begin manufacturing the Apollo brand in South Africa (currently the brand is imported from India) as well as building on the premium Vredestein brand locally.
The Dunlop and Regal brands will continue to be produced and marketed in South Africa and ATSA will also concentrate on developing all four tyre brands in South Africa for markets in Africa and South America.
Apollo Tyres South Africa (Pty) Ltd, 265 Sydney Road, Congella, Durban PO Box 925, Durban 4000, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa Tel: +27 (0) 31 242 1111 Fax: +27 (0) 31 242 1366 apollotyres.com
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