|
Bridgestone to invest Rs 259 crore on expansion of Pithampur facility |
|
|
|
Written by Ravi
|
|
Wednesday, 18 November 2009 |
Kolkata : The world's largest tyre manufacturer, Bridgestone Corporation, has announced an investment of Rs 259 crore for expansion of it's production facility at Pithampur near Indore in Madhya Pradesh. The company has identified India as a significant growth market in the Asia-Pacific region and wants to capture a third of the growing passenger car market in India.
The company will increase production capacity by over 40 per cent to 15,000 tyres per day by the middle of next year. Bridgestone will also hire 300 more people as part of the expansion plan in the country.
"The Indian market is our top priority in the Asia-Pacific region. We are going to put more focus on the Indian market than ever and are considering and discussing many possibilities for expansion," said Yoshihiro Tanabe, Asia Pacific General Manager for Consumer Marketing - Bridgestone.
The company, however, has adopted a wait-and-wait policy on expansion in the US and Europe.
"The global meltdown has not affected India as much as it hurt the Western economies. Demand is growing and so we want to capture more than one-third of its passenger car market by 2012," said Vaibhav Saraf, Bridgestone India Senior Deputy General Manager for Marketing.
Saraf said that the company also plans to have a dealership network of around 2,300 in the next three years from the existing 2,000-odd dealers.
Bridgestone was one of the first manufacturers to launch radial tyres in the domestic car market. The company set up base in India in February 1996 and set up the factory two years later at Kheda near Indore in Madhya Pradesh. It enjoys close to 30 per cent market share of the radial segment today. |
