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MOTORINDIA
l
June 2012
leadership of 2 of our finest experts.
While commercial and personal
vehicle tyre development and test-
ing will be located in India and The
Netherlands respectively, smaller
teams across key markets will work
on customising each global product
to market requirements and testing
under local conditions. This struc-
ture allows for a sharper focus on
basic research, increased usage of
alternative raw materials and mar-
ket-led product performance.”
Mr. P.K. Mohamed, Chief Advi-
sor, Apollo Tyres Ltd., will lead the
commercial vehicle (CV) tyre divi-
sion, which will be housed on the
same campus as the Chennai manu-
facturing facility, while Mr. Peter
Snel, Group Head, Apollo Tyres
Ltd., will spearhead the passenger
vehicle (PV) tyre unit from a new
facility being set up in Enschede,
Netherlands.
Mr. Mohamed is one of the found-
ing members of Apollo’s technol-
ogy journey in both commercial and
passenger tyres and is credited with
some of the most successful tyres
manufactured till date. He contin-
ues to play a critical role in guiding
Apollo’s strategic growth.
Mr. Peter Snel joined Apollo
Vredestein over a decade ago and
has been a key member of the team
which established Vredestein as an
ultra-high performance tyre brand.
Decision on the location of the
two centres was taken on the basis
of the current and potential CV and
PV markets. The Middle East and
Asia constitute nearly 59 per cent of
the global commercial tyre market,
while Europe and North America
comprise 51 per cent of the world’s
passenger tyre sales. This would
enable both the R&D units to have
closer interaction with OEM and
replacement customers, testing cen-
tres, raw material suppliers and re-
search institutes.
w
tyres
“Our clear focus is on bringing
to the market leaner yet robust
products for the commercial
segment which deliver on the
parameters of lower fuel con-
sumption, increased tyre life
and added safety features.”
– Mr. P. K. Mohamed