TVS Tyres churns its wheels with BMW, Michelin

“Every year with commencement on new Samvat (Hindu New Year), astrologically, based on planetary position, certain new sectors start getting astrological support and outperform, while others remain laggard. And this time one of the manufacturers which will be getting celestial support is TVS Srichakra,” wrote Satish Gupta of Astrostocktips on his astrology column.

Believe it or not, the predictions are turning quite true, as the year has been quite eventful for TVS Srichakra, the tyre manufacturing arm of TVS Group which sells its product under the brand TVS Tyres and TVS Eurogrip.

To begin with, the tie up is with BMW. We had earlier mentioned in these columns that the two wheelers manufactured in the TVS Motor-BMW joint venture will inherently be using tyres from TVS Srichakra. TVS Tyres are already developing radial tyres for the products which are expected to be revealed in 2016.

The company also has plans to invest around Rs 150 crore this year to expand its manufacturing capacity from the current 2 million tyres per month to 2.3 million tyres per month by December 2015.

“The company is also looking at launching tyres for the earthmover category in future,” informed P Vijayaraghavan, director, TVS Srichakra Ltd while he was addressing a group of journalists during a plant visit at Madurai earlier this month.

The plant visit was also as part of the steps towards rebranding and repositioning the firm. The visit to the plant was quite educative with respect to the role played by tyres in shaping up a vehicle’s behaviour and how several parameters of an automobile’s performance such as ride, handling, grip, stopping distance, fuel economy, etc., are functions of tyres.

Scribes were briefed to the procuring raw materials, R&D, external testing facility, curing moulds, which culminated with a test drive on the TVS track. One of the announcements during the plant visit that came as a surprise was about the tie up between Michelin and TVS Tyres.

TVS Tyres stated that it had entered into an agreement with Michelin for setting up a new manufacturing facility within its existing plant at Madurai. The products designed by Michelin for the Indian market, will be manufactured by TVS Srichakra, at this new facility, under the Michelin Brand name.

This TVS Madurai unit will produce product ranges for both Michelin as well as some tyres from TVS’s product range of two wheeler tyres and will incorporate best practices from both the companies to deliver world class products to Indian consumers.

The agreement is sure to change the identity of the company which has already been involved with a whole image overhaul, with a new logo and a new ‘Nayi Soch Nayi Pehchaan’ campaign from the beginning of this year.

“‘Change is Constant’, and adapting to this constant change is vital, and connecting with the youth of the country who are leading this change is key to staying relevant in their minds. This is what our TVC has attempted to do; the freshness of the change, the mass appeal of simple ideas and the powerful visuals bring alive this thought,” Vijayaraghavan was quoted saying as he had unveiled the latest TVC. With inputs from Augustin Kurian