Triangle Tyre Co. (India) Ltd., the Indian entity of the China-based Triangle Group, is drawing up a blueprint to gain a strategic foothold in the country. The nearly 40 year-old firm, which specialises in research & development, manufacturing and marketing of tyres for commercial, passenger and off-the-road (OTR) vehicles, has already kicked off the first phase of its operations in India by appointing distributors and is keen to begin the second phase by setting up franchisee stores and adding new product lines.
The Shanghai-based firm began its operations last year and is witnessing phenomenal response for its products. It is to be mentioned here that Triangle TBR tyres as well as other category tyres are priced marginally lower than the domestic comparable products by approximately five-10 per cent, but 20 per cent more than nondescript imported Chinese tyres.
Discerning the importance of the Indian tyre market, Triangle has appointed an industry veteran Mr. K.C.S. Pillai, as the Managing Director in charge of Indian operations. Mr. Pillai, who already had stints with Goodyear International & India, is quite excited to head the Indian operations of China’s numero uno tyremaker.
In an exclusive interaction with MOTORINDIA, Mr. Pillai affirmed: “The Indian tyre market is pretty competitive where the domestic firms have a stranglehold. But the landscape will change eventually as many overseas big-league firms have made a foray here. And, being the largest tyre-maker in China and the 15th largest in the world, the Indian market was very much on its (Triangle’s) radar. So, after my long stint with Goodyear, I have been entrusted with building the ‘Triangle’ brand. Although it is a Chinese brand, its products are well known for their durability and quality, and I am happy to state that our products have been appreciated by our distributors here. We should be able to sell a respectable quantity (of tyres) by the end of this calendar year.”
It may be recalled that the Triangle Group was founded by the Weihai Government way back in 1976. To be listed soon as the domestic stock exchange, the tyre-making giant rolls out over 700 types of radial tyres in more than 160 sizes and manufactures nearly 400 types of bias tyres in more than 100 sizes at its facilities in China. As a whole, it annually produces close to 30 million tyres, selling them in nearly 165 countries. Its products are exported to various American, European Union, African, Middle East, Asia-Pacific and Oceanian regions.
The group churns out over 25 million + radial tyres at its four plants in China where its annual rubber mixing capacity is over five lakh tonnes. The tyre rebuilding capacity is over five lakh units. Its product portfolio encompasses radial passenger car tyres, radial light truck and truck tyres and radial OTR tyres (for industrial, construction and mining equipment).
Triangle has also become an important supplier of OEM tyres for some of the leading vehicle and equipment manufacturers such as Caterpillar, Volvo, FAW, Dong Feng Motor Group, Golden Dragon, Yontong Auto Corp, Terex, Doosan, Hyundai, etc. It has also established a strategic partnership with one of the leading multinational companies. Triangle is the fourth largest radial OTR tire supplier in the world.
“Having obtained a leadership position in the domestic tyre market in China, Triangle is now in the process of widening its base in overseas nations, and India is one of the emerging ones. Moreover, we believe in providing the customers best value-for-money; hence specific tyres are available for different segments. If you talk about our product offerings, we have tube type and tubeless tyres for multiple applications like city bus, highway, mixed service, general purpose, mining, etc. We also have 10.00R20, 11.00R20, 12.00R24 and low aspect ratio tubeless radial tyres in India approved by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS),” added Mr. Pillai.
Asked to shed some light on the products’ USP, Mr. Pillai stated: “Our tyres are handheld by a robust service support team. The product quality is on par with Indian players. There are certain sizes (of tyres) that we produce and others don’t. We have also arranged training programmes more often to educate our customers on radial technology and economical usage of radial tires. Furthermore, our tyres are known for low-rolling resistance, value-for-money, eco-friendliness and durability.”
Talking about the company’s distribution channel, Mr. Pillai said: “We are currently importing PCR, TBR and OTRR from China. We have distributors in all the four major regions and are also targeting direct fleets to get real-time performance from customers. At present, our products are distributed in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata. Celite Tyre Corporation in Mumbai is our biggest client for truck and OTR radials. Going forward, we are planning to appoint one distributor each in Chennai, Gujarat, Odisha, etc. among other States. We intend to have at least 15 distributors by the end of year. We will eventually be setting up franchisee-based sales and service outlets in the country through our distributers’ participation.”
However, Mr. Pillai maintained that the company will be sticking to the CBU route and has no immediate plans to set up a greenfield facility.
The Triangle Group has annual sales of $2,469.8 million (2013) and expects a major chunk of its revenues to come from India in the next decade. “We are chalking out plans to establish the brand in India. We are confident to gain a strategic foothold in the country and will carve out a specific place for our products. But we will not compromise on our product quality for gaining volumes. This is because we don’t want to be typecast as an ordinary Chinese brand like other cheap imported products. We aim to be figured amongst the leading multinational firms in India,” signed off Mr. Pillai.