BKT aims to launch 63-inch tires by next year

– Rajiv Poddar

Joint Managing Director, BKT Tires

As a global OTR major, what are your strategies for the Indian and global markets to increase the percentage?

Firstly, let’s go back a little bit into history. From the product point of view – at BKT we have been taking small steps. It’s like when you go to school, you can’t become a graduate overnight. You need to do pre-primary, primary, mid, secondary, college, and then so on. Similarly, we started off in the smaller mode, doable 25 inches, then graduated up to 35 inches, then moved up to the complicated 47-inch, 49-inch, 51-inch, and now 57 inches. By the next EXCON, we will be coming up with the 63-inch also.

In terms of the availability of the product, we have built the infrastructure to match that capacity in India, we are the first and the only company to build tyres in the radial sector, which are built in-house. At BKT, we do not believe in buying technology. We believe in making and creating our own. Today, our products are doing exceptionally well. We have a distribution range and service-seeing partners across the globe who play an integral role in the life of a tyre. Eventually, an OTR tyre needs to be looked after throughout its life. Making a tyre is one aspect, selling a tyre is another aspect but the job of BKT does not end when it sells its tyres. Its job continues till the tyre is running.

What was your investment that was invested in recent times and your expansion plan?

Investment is an ongoing subject at BKT. There are two things in investment; one is creating new and the second is upgrading. So, both these aspects are looked at separately at BKT. Because it’s easy to set up something, but it’s difficult to maintain and upgrade it. Today, all our infrastructure at BKT is at par with any player across the globe. We are the only ones who have our own R&D center in India, along with a testing facility and a test track in addition to our own carbon black and mold plant as backward integration. This could happen because of the forward-thinking and investment made in this direction.

Speaking about number – a capex of INR 450 Crores for modernisation, automation and technology upgradation of certain existing equipment and installation of automated material handling systems at Rajasthan and Bhuj leading to further improvement in quality and efficiency.

What is the role of BKT in terms of environment and sustainability?

It is rightly said – sustainability initiatives spark innovation and environmental progress – as sustainability requires companies to go beyond ordinary compliance with the law. Especially, for the tire industry, sustainability isn’t a cakewalk, as tires are one of the polluting auto parts. The only way forward, therefore, is to focus on green manufacturing processes such as minimizing the consumption of natural resources and reducing CO2 emissions.

In fact, we are the first Indian tire company to adhere to the REACH compliance environmental requirement of the European Union way back in 2009.

We work on the principle of ‘First Reduce’. So 100% of wastewater is recycled that being said all our plants are certified zero liquid discharge facilities. We have worked assiduously to ensure a downward trend in our waste by reusing and recycling the waste products in different stages of the manufacturing process, as per technical guidelines.

Our R&D is constantly looking into more ways to reuse & recycle the waste materials that will help preserve the environment.

We employ alternate sources of energy – in our Chopanki Plant and Bhuj Plant we have a 1 MW rooftop solar power plant set up and rely on wind energy in our Bhiwadi Plant.

So we are continuously working towards taking drastic measures to integrate sustainability and protect the environment for future generations.

Traditionally BKT has been into exports majorly. Now the trend is changing to the domestic market. How do you see this drastic change that is happening?

I don’t think there has ever been a drastic change. We made Tractor tyres in 1998 for the Indian market. However, we believe there is no use in approaching something when you can’t service it. Once our Bhuj was set up, we got deeper into the whole Indian sector, and because it’s so huge you need to have a proper capacity. That’s when we started our journey to India.

As we are not into commercial space, we follow a disciplined approach with a lot of self-imposed rules. Additionally, we don’t have commercial tie-ups and we don’t believe in setting up our own franchise shops, but we worked through a conformist approach i.e. through distributors and dealers. So for the Indian market, we have the strategy as we have for the export market and thus we have developed specific products for India. We started with the product, followed by creating the distribution network, setting up the required investment for infrastructure, and then promoting the product in the market through various avenues.

You have been focusing a lot on research and development now-a-days. Now I think your investment maybe moving larger into R&D. So, what is your annual investment?

Even if you look at BKT’s history, we have always worked toward the quality of our product. We have been able to churn out close to 80 to 100 tyre sizes every year. So, R&D has been a focus. Of late, our R&D has grown and we have become an innovator. We have our own R&D space; we have places where we can do technology testing. So today, even if you look at the products that we are developing, they are in line with the international players. We are talking about noise level testing in our product line. So, we are already developing, we have a passion for R&D.

The BKT Research and Development Team deals with everything concerning tire technologies and innovation: from designing a product novelty to creating new compounds to improve tire performance, and to implementing more efficient manufacturing processes. We have 2 R&D centers for compound development in Bhuj and Chopanki. We have a tyre testing in-house capabilities for Indoor testing such as an analytical lab, chemical lab, physical Lab, in addition to the stimulation process to name a few and the specially designed outdoor Test Track at the R&D complex of Bhuj.

We have teams working in HO for designing all the molds and product specifications, supported by Tyre simulation team and the Field Engineering Team for feedback on product performance. Additionally, there are Process Technical Teams and Product testing teams in each plant. All these teams work in close cooperation with one another in every phase of the process to make the best performance of tyres. In fact, we have a 3D printer and stimulation system in HO for quicker turnaround on new tire design ideation. Now coming to your question on investment – we invest around 3% to 5% investment in R&D annually.

What is your vision for BKT five years down the line?

Currently, we are about 6 percent global market share, when we started our journey back in 2005-06, we were at 2 percent. So, we have grown from 2 to 6 percent. Our vision is to be 10 percent. So that’s where we are running towards and optimistically, in the next 5 years, we should be there.

Our CSR journey is where we focus a lot through our BKT We Care Foundation on health and education. We believe education is very important. So, our Founder Chairman always said that don’t give people charity but give people the wings to sustain and empower them. We believe that education empowers them. In the coming five years we would like to amplify all our CSR.

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