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the CARE report.

And the market is changing fast.

Fifteen years ago, the replacement or the ‘after market,’ was led by commercial vehicles (85%). Today, with the growth of passenger vehicle segment, this has shrunk to 65%. Hence the new focus on the individual customer and after sales service.

Overall, the top six companies still account for 88% of the total industry production. MRF with 22.32% is the market leader, followed closely by Apollo. JK has consolidated its position in the LCV, passenger car and OTR (off-the-road) category. Ceat is fourth but has recently lost marketshare. Birla and Goodyear are way behind in this race. (Source: CARE report on the Indian Tyre Industry, 2007.)

So who’s driving the segment?

In 1986, Ceat came out with an ambitious plan. It launched its first branded showroom called Ceat Shoppe. At one point they numbered around 500, across India, accounting for almost 35% of the company’s radial tyre sales, but some of these showrooms later had to be shut down.

A more robust model of the retail format was followed by JK that launched Steel Wheels in 110 cities in 1995 and soon they became hugely successful. They followed this up with ‘dial a wheel’ concept in Delhi.

“Our highest number of subscribers to this service are women, especially from areas like south Delhi, where we don’t have any delivery hassles,” explains Neeraj Bhatia, general manager, strategic planning, JK Tyres.

Apollo meanwhile, flagged off its first branded format in Patiala, followed by one in Chennai, recently. Fully air-conditioned lounge areas, cafeterias, Internet kiosk and in-store entertainment options are some of the features that the Apollo showroom, branded Apollo Radial World features, with a glass wall through which customers can actually watch their tyres being taken care of.

Trained staff is at hand to help them make the right tyre choice to best match their vehicle and driving style. So eye catching is this Apollo showroom in Patiala that it recently picked a gold at the 2008 In-Store Asia Visual Merchandising & Retail Signage Awards, the first given to a tyre company. “We plan to launch 30 such stores by the year end where ever we have significant passenger vehicle sales,” said Satish Sharma, chief, India operations for Apollo Tyres.