Apollo Tyres, JK vie for Dunlop

Industry sources aver that the experience gained by JKI in turning around Vikrant Tyres Limited (VTL) in a matter of ten months could stand the company in good stead if and when it approaches the BIFR with a resuscitation package for Dunlop.

R P Singhania, managing director of JKI and director of VTL however remained non-committal when asked about the company taking a close look at Dunlop. All he would say at this juncture is that it is a time-consuming process and, therefore, too early tocomment on it.

Interestingly, all this comes at a time when tyre major MRF Ltd reportedly spurned the offer to bring Dunlop in its fold.

According to highly placed sources, Apollo Tyres chairman Omkar Singh Kanwar has reportedly met Chandan Basu, son of the West Bengal Chief Minister, Jyoti Basu, for acquiring Dunlop factories in Shahganj in West Bengal and Amabttur near Chennai, through the BIFR route.

According to industry sources, Kanwar’s scrambled after Chennai-based tyre major MRF’s reported move to take over Dunlop’s plants, which would have seriously threatened Apollo’s predominance in the lucrative truck tyre segemnt.

That’s because Apollo has been using Dunlop’s Shahganj facilities as an additional manufacturing centre for its brands. Apollo also uses the Tyre Corporation of India’s Calcutta plant for the same purpose. Both Dunlop and TCI had been `converting’ Apollo’s raw material into truck tyres on per kilogramme basis.