JK Tyre to enter two-wheeler tyre market

JK Tyre & Industries Ltd. manufactures four wheeler radial tyres for cars, buses and trucks. The company has now decided to enter the two-wheeler tyre market to further expand its product range. Subsequently, JK Tyre has recently acquired the manufacturing unit of BK Birla's Kesoram Industries where the production of two-wheeler tyres will be carried out.

Commenting on the new venture, Vivek Kamra, President of JK Tyre said, "The two-wheeler tyre market is huge and we have the production capacity, so I' hoping that the growth to 600,000 units a month is not gradual but fast,"

"The production will begin very early next financial year," he further informed. 

JK Tyre had acquired the Kesoram Industries tyre manufacturing unit for Rs 2,200 crores in September, 2015. The company claims to be able to achieve initial production output of 6 lakh tyres per month from the facility. The manufacturing unit is located in the town of Laksar which belongs to the Haridwar district of Uttarakhand.

The company was previously working on entering the market through the trading route but has later opted to return back to manufacturing tyres. Now, with the new decision, the company will supply two-wheeler tyres to OEMs and aftermarket section. The company is already in talks with few OEMs for the supply of tyres as mentioned by Kamra.

The two-wheeler tyre market is also shared by Apollo Tyres, who has recently launched two-wheeler tyres with Acti Series in the beginning of March. However, the company is currently aiming only for the aftermarket section in the industry.