The 10 millionth truck radial tyre came out of the mould at JK Vikrant plant in Mysuru. JK Tyre took over this plant from the Karnataka Government in the late 1990s. An investment of over Rs 1200 cr has seen the plant being transformed into a modern state-of-the-art plant.
Raghupati Singhania, Chairman and Managing Director, JK Tyre says when the company started operations in 1977 with its first tyre plant in Rajasthan, annual capacity stood at 5 lakh units.
Since then, the company has grown multifold. Over time, JK Tyre has set up green field plants, expanded production capacity, acquired plants across continents and in India. Most recently, three 3 plants of Cavendish Industries in Uttarakhand to keep pace with increased tyre demand in India and global markets.
The commercial vehicle tyre market in India stands at 7.18 lakh (2015-16) units. JK Tyre has been a market leader introduced Truck and Bus Radial tyres back in 1999. Today, the company is the largest segment producer. Today, JK Tyre manufactures a complete range from a 3 kilo scooter tyre to the 3.7 tonnes Ultra Large OTR tyre.
JK Tyre operates 12 plants globally with a future ready capacity of 350 lakh tyres per annum. Its Rs 2200 cr acquisition of Cavendish has helped JK Tyre enter the high growth 2-3 wheeler segment with brand Challenger.
Earlier this year, the company completed phase 2 expansion of its pure radial plant at Chennai with a total investment of Rs 1430 crore. The plant makes truck radials and car radials and has a production capacity of 12 lakh TBRs and 45 lakh PCRs. The plant can be scaled up to 2 million truck radials and 10 million PCRs. JK’s Mexico plants are under expansion with capacity to go up to 5 million tyres from 3.5 million units per year.
