Apollo Tyres restructures global R&D team

May 24: Apollo Tyres Ltd has restructured its Research and Development team, across its three key geographies, to synergise resources across operations for critical product segments and to drive into new markets. This follow a company management decision to increase Apollo’s focus on core research and a substantial increase in R&D spends over the next few years. The new structure links the entire organisation along two critical product lines of commercial and personal vehicle tyres, with respective leaders reporting to the vice-chairman.

According to Neeraj Kanwar, vice-chairman and managing director, Apollo Tyres (pictured), “We have merged our R&D resources of nearly 250 individuals from Africa, Europe and India, under the leadership of two of our finest experts. While commercial and personal vehicle tyre development and testing will be located in India and The Netherlands respectively, smaller teams across key markets will work on customising each global product to market requirements and testing under local conditions. This structure allows for a sharper focus on basic research, increased usage of alternative raw materials and market-led product performance.”

P K Mohamed, chief Advisor, R&D, Apollo Tyres, will lead the CV tyre division, which will be housed on the same campus as the Chennai manufacturing facility, while Peter Snel, Group head, Global R&D (PV), Apollo Tyres, will spearhead the passenger vehicle tyre unit, from a new facility being set up in Enschede, Netherlands.

P K Mohamed, who is one of the founding members of Apollo’s technology journey in both CV and PV tyres and is credited with some of the most successful tyres manufactured till date, said: “Our focus is on bringing to market leaner yet robust products for the commercial segment, which deliver on the parameters of lower fuel consumption, increased tyre life and added safety features.”

Peter Snel, Group Head, Global Research & Development PV, joined Apollo Vredestein over a decade ago and has been a key member of the team which established Vredestein as a niche ultra-high-performance tyre brand.

The decision on the location of the two centres was taken on the basis of current and potential CV and PV markets. While the Middle East and Asia constitute nearly 59 percent of the global commercial tyre market, Europe and North America comprise 51 percent of the world’s passenger tyre sales. This would enable both the R&D units to have closer interaction with OEM and replacement customers, testing centres, raw material suppliers and research institutes.