Apollo Tyres is fast expanding its retail presence across the country. Onkar S Kanwar, chairman of Apollo Tyres, inaugurated the company’s mega-format, branded lifestyle store called Apollo Super Zone in Mumbai on March 19 (seen here with Vijay Tripathi, proprietor, Shakti Sai Tyres).

Apollo Super Zones are premium branded retail outlets as well as lifestyle stores manned by skilled and knowledgeable staff. This second Super Zone located in Dahisar is spread over 1,000 square feet. Mumbai, according to Apollo, has a market potential of over 20,000 tyres every month. The company has scalable branded retail formats which range from a Super Zone, the largest format, to Apollo Zones and the Apollo Points, which are scaled-down versions inspired by the shop-in-shop concept.

Speaking on the occasion, chairman Onkar S Kanwar said, “The retail experience in India has undergone a sea-change in the past decade. There is no reason why tyres should lag behind. We began the process of modernising the buying experience two years ago, and are gradually changing all our stores across India. On an average, the Apollo Zones experience a 50 percent increase in sales in a very short period of time.”

Commenting on future plans, Satish Sharma, chief, India Operations, said: “We currently have two Super Zones, 25 Apollo Zones and 44 Apollo Points. In the next two years, we plan to take this up to 30 Apollo Zones and multiple Apollo Points. We feel we need to do this to enable customers to view tyres as a critical purchase item which ensures their safety at all times.”