Apollo Tyres commissions first overseas greenfield facility in Hungary.

Apollo Tyres recentlycommissioned its 475 million euro (nearly Rs. 3,460 crore) first greenfield manufacturing facility out of the country near Budapest in Hungary.

The unit would have capacity to manufacture 5.5 million passenger car and light truck tyres and 675,000 commercial vehicle tyres upon completion of the first phase of expansion. The facility complements Apollo Tyres’ unit in Netherlands and would roll out both Apollo and Vredestein brand of tyres for the European market.

“The facility will help us further increase our presence and market share in Europe. From being a replacement market focussed company in Europe, we would soon be starting supplies of our tyres to all leading original equipment manufacturers in Europe,” said Onkar S Kanwar, chairman, Apollo Tyres.

Apollo Tyres, which clocked turnover of $1.8 billion in FY16, has four manufacturing facilities across Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Gujarat in India and a single unit in Netherlands with production capacity of 1,650 MT a day. The firm gets nearly 70% of revenues from Indian operations.

Gurgaon-based Apollo Tyres exports to more than 100 countries and has been working on scaling up its presence in global markets through organic greenfield investments and through acquisitions under vice-chairman and managing director Neeraj Kanwar over the past few years.

ET