Chase Your Dream

Parag Satpute,
Managing Director,
Bridgestone India

That is not just a tagline of Bridgestone’s Olympic Manifesto, but created to inspire innovation, in internal and external stakeholders. EQUIPMENT TIMES finds out the ambitious plans of Bridgestone India.
“Further investments in our Brand can also be expected, through the expansion of our partnership with badminton ace PV Sindhu, which leverages on Bridgestone’s TOP partnership with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as a worldwide Olympic partner. We plan to expand our campaign featuring Sindhu in 2018 with a bevy of other Indian sports heroes, to further promote Bridgestone’s Olympic Manifesto of ‘Chase Your Dream’, with the aim of inspiring our internal and external stakeholders, ” states Parag Satpute, Managing Director, Bridgestone India.

Since its establishment in 1996, Bridgestone India’s journey has been quite phenomenal. Bridgestone started the production of its first tyre locally in Kheda and its presence in this market has been continuously growing. In 2013 Bridgestone began operations of its second tyre plant located in Pune. Over the years, Bridgestone India has built an enviable dealership network of over 6,000 stores that holistically covers the top 200 cities across multiple tyre segments, making it one of the largest tyre companies in India. The fiscal year 2016-2017 has been tremendous for Bridgestone India. The company registered steady growth and continue to be the leading tyre brand in the Indian market. “Our objective is to achieve steady growth by finding innovation solutions and overcoming challenges and continue to be the market leader in our industry. In terms of sales performance, Bridgestone
India aims to outpace market growth, states Satpute.

Spreading its Wings
Taking the mantle of the company recently Satpute elaborates on the growth strategies of Bridgestone. “My broad plan is to set up all the strategies / initiatives necessary to promote continuous growth of Bridgestone India’s operation through a balanced approach for volume, profit and market share. The India economy is growing at a fast pace and from a mid-to-long term perspective, Bridgestone India must be ready to capture the opportunities being offered in this rapidly growing market. We know that the business environment is evolving and Bridgestone will continue to evolve quickly. We must become an agile and dynamic organization capable of understanding, meeting and exceeding the end-users requirements by offering products and solutions that bring added-value,”

According to him the company has made plans to invest USD 304.3m to expand its Indian operations over five years starting from 2017. This additional capacity will position Bridgestone to capture the forecasted demand growth of the Indian market and is in-line with its mid-term plan of investing in future, to enable Bridgestone to sustain its competitiveness and market leadership in the long-term.

Bridgestone also has plans to expand the current range of product offerings, to reach out to more customer segments across the Indian market. Says Satpute, “We also plan to further develop our business in the commercial vehicle segment (fleet owners and operators) and with vehicle manufacturers (OEMs) in India. In the passenger vehicle space, our market strategy is to continuously evolve to keep pace with the changing business environment. This can be seen through the introduction of new brands in the market over the past couple of years, such as ECOPIA (eco-friendly tyres) and Firestone (American Tyre Brand).”

To reach out to new customers as well as to address changing expectations as consumer behaviour shifts towards digital-enabled platforms and services, Bridgestone has embarked on a journey to upgrade its websites to be better aligned to its global platform, to provide a unified digital experience to customers and stakeholders across
the globe.

Trends in Transportation Sector
Speaking about the changing trends in the transportation sector Satpute says, “The transportation sector is undergoing consolidation, where small fleet operators are merging with large fleet operators. This is due to the challenges faced by players in the core sectors of the transportation segment, such as agriculture, mining, consumer durables, cement, etc. However, as the government is placing extra thrust on the economy, things should improve.”

In India, the transport industry is classified into various operating segments such as the long-haul general cargo, overload, high-load and the intercity bus segment. Bridgestone’s products are customized for the Indian market to meet the local road conditions, as well as the fleets’ unique operational requirement, such as the M751 premium block tyre for long-haul general cargo and M751HL for the high-load segment. For the intercity bus segment, Bridgestone offers high performance tubeless technology (ECOPIA) which provides good mileage and fuel-savings to fleet operators.

“We focus on end-users / customers’ requirements and expectations, with the aim of creating added-value through continuous innovation. In doing so, we ensure that products are customized to meet local road conditions as well as our fleet customers’ operational requirements. All products have at least 9 months of quality and performance tests prior to market introduction. In addition, innovative solutions are continuously being developed and introduced to meet customers’ expectations. Using the latest Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud technologies, we’re currently piloting Bridgestone Tirematics Solution for yard management in the Asia Pacific region. This solution utilizes sensor technology to transmit and interpret tyre data in real-time with a high degree of accuracy, to support fleet management while enhancing operational efficiency and promoting safe mobility.”

Radialization – Key Focus
Radialization (the process of shifting from bias towards radial tyres) is a key focus area for Bridgestone India. According to Satpute this is one of the key drivers towards the expansion of the company’s footprint in the Indian market. In fact, Bridgestone foresees that the Indian replacement market from 2017 – 2022 will grow by over 15%. To capture this market growth, Bridgestone has in August 2017 announced our expansion of both our Pune (Chakan) and Indore (Kheda) plants with an investment of USD304.3 million, conducted in a phased manner over the next five years starting 2017. This investment will enable Bridgestone’s Indian plants to meet increasing tyre demand owning to the growing vehicle population and production.
“The investment by the government towards transportation infrastructure, such as the highway projects, is another factor that we foresee will have a positive impact and boost on the transport segment in India. If these projects go smoothly, we foresee that radialization rates could be even higher,” states Satpute.

R&D – Inspiring Innovation
The R&D strategy represents a key element of the value chain for Bridgestone business in the Asia-Pacific region. The recently established Asia-Pacific Technical Center (APTC) works in full synergy with its global R&D network that includes the three major R&D centres that Bridgestone has in the world (Tokyo, Japan; Akron, Americas; Rome, Europe, MEA) to develop both products and solutions that meet and exceed end-users expectations and market requirements, including new regulations. APTC also works in close synergy with each market to develop raw materials that sustain competitiveness in the market while fully matching its standards of quality, safety and respect of the environment.

“We have an aggressive agenda to develop and release new products in each segment of our brand portfolio (Bridgestone, Firestone) and the Company will continue to invest in APTC to expand our R&D facilities in the region, while strengthening our R&D capacity and capability,” avers Satpute. He adds, “Bridgestone makes significant investments in R&D and training to ensure that we are both the technology and product leader. While we are unable to provide specific numbers with regards to market share, we are confident that Bridgestone is one of the market leaders in the Indian tyre industry.”

Bridgestone Group will continue to advance innovative technologies with a strong commitment to supporting global communities. For example, Bridgestone’s Environmental Mission Statement of “To help ensure a healthy environment for current and future generations” is the driving force behind our launch of Ecopia in India. Through Ecopia’s unique compounds and cutting-edge technology in tread design, it strikes a balance between fuel efficiency, low rolling resistance, safety and durability, to enable Bridgestone to contribute towards the reduction of CO2 emissions in India, while offering Indian drivers fuel-savings. In turn, these fuel savings moves Bridgestone closer to our long-term environmental vision of achieving 50% reduction in CO2 emissions by the year 2050
and beyond.

Augmenting OTR Capabilities
In October 2015, Bridgestone Corporation announced the establishment of in-house companies in its business for mining and agricultural machinery, to accelerate the global expansion of Bridgestone’s solutions business1. This unit will collectively provide multiple product combinations and services within the Group’s expertise, such as OTR tires for construction and mining vehicles, conveyer belts, as well as agricultural tyres and rubber tracks. Using these product combinations at the core of its competitive edge, Bridgestone will work to promote a business mode that collectively provides services and IT support, to generate unprecedented new value and contribute to the business operations of our customers.

“In India, Bridgestone is consistently delivering premium off-the-road tires to large mining truck manufacturers. Other OTR equipment related to the construction industry mainly focuses on domestic bias-ply products. In addition, Bridgestone has plans to cater to the construction industry with products that have a lower initial cost without compromising on quality.” He adds, “Bridgestone sees growth in the market for PTR products, with demand coming from the mining, construction and port segments. To be prepared for this growth in demand, Bridgestone is ramping up production gradually.”

Bridgestone has a strong presence amongst quality conscious mining operators, particularly in the segment for 57 inch tyres. As part of Bridgestone’s global portfolio of earthmoving and material handling products, Bridgestone offers tyres from 15 to 63 inch, which are applicable for most earthmoving equipment. Within India, at the moment, the maximum size we supply is up to 57 inch.

Initiatives on the Horizon
“In the OTR space, we have several initiatives. The company is looking at expand the utilization of sensor technology within the OTR segment as part of digitalization in the industry. This involves leveraging the Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud technologies to simplify and streamline fleets’ tyre maintenance and monitoring, to reduce tyre maintenance costs and occurrence of tyre-related breakdowns. We will be collaborating within the Bridgestone Group (for example with our diversified business which deals with convey belts) to collectively provide multiple product combinations, to provide greater value to customers. We will also address the trend towards carrying more payload for earthmoving equipment within our product offerings,” says Satpute.

Moving Forward
Speaking about the challenges and growth opportunities Satpute states: “India is a very dynamic market, with a fast moving and evolving business landscape. We have seen many major positives, such as the Government’s focus on reforms, infrastructure and rural development particularly in the areas of power, railway and road. However, with change comes challenges for businesses, whether it is addressing customer behaviour which we foresee to change quickly as the Indian government and society embraces digitalization through new technologies, or meeting the requirements to support OEMs towards preparing for the BS-VI emission standards in 2020 and shift towards all electric cars by 2030 which are part of the reinforcement of the environmental regulation in India. In addition, if we look outside of India, the global economy plays a part in whether we experience head or tailwinds as a business, which can manifest and impact our Indian operations through issues such as raw material prices and global tyre / automobile demand, which may result in some business volatility.”

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