Yokohama India has begun manufacturing tires after the completion of its second phase of expansion. The company began its manufacturing operations in India in 2014 with an annual capacity of 0.7 million and now it has gone up to 1.6 million tires per year. The company has also strengthened its standard operating practices in a bid to facilitate smooth progress of production lines at the factory. Yokohama entered the Indian market in 2007 and achieved the 1 millionth tire production mark in 2016.
Anil Gupta, Vice Chairman Yokohama India said, “In response to the increasing demand for Yokohama Tyres in India and keeping in mind the projected market growth, we decided to double our domestic manufacturing capacities. Incidentally, it has happened at an opportune time as restrictions on the import of tires have been announced by the government. This decision is in line with the government’s clarion call for “Atmanirbhar Bharat” – from the drawing board to the dealer shops, the new Phase-2 facility is fully equipped to meet Indian market needs.
With technological expertise from its parent company in Japan, Yokohama now manufactures its extremely popular Geolandar A/T along with Geolandar SUV tire and the BluEarth-RV02 tire at the new facility. The company says it has several new tire models on the anvil, ready to be launched in the near future.
The company says that the expansion will also help increase employment opportunities at the Bahadurgarh plant. At present, the plant has 500 employees and with the increase in production, the plant will require an additional 200 people. The Yokohama Club Network or YCN is a specialized sales network that aims to provide a good experience to customers at the point of purchase and India has these dealerships as well. Yokohama is the original equipment supplier to automotive brands like Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Nissan, Honda, Suzuki, Toyota, and Mitsubishi as well.