TVS Tyres to invest Rs 150 cr in TN, Uttarakhand plants

TVS Tyres Monday said it will invest about Rs 150 crore for capacity addition in its two plants in Tamil Nadu and Uttarakhand, aiming to add 30 lakh units per month to its production line by December 2015.

The production will be increased from 2 mn tyres a month to 2.3 million tyres in the company's plants at Madurai (Tamil Nadu) and Rudrapur (Uttarakhand), TVS Tyres Director P Vijayaraghavan told reporters.

"During 2014-15, we have increased our output from 1.70 mn tyres per month to 2 mn tyres. We are now investing in Capex of around Rs 150 crore, so as to increase the overall capacity to 2.30 mn tyres which we expect to reach by December 2015," he said.

Both internal funding and borrowing will be the source of the capex for this purpose, he said.

On the audited financial results of the company for the year 2014-15, he said that revenue, EBIDTA and profits had increased.

The revenue for FY 2014-15 was at Rs 1,895.99 crore, a 13 percent increase compared to FY 2013-14, while EBIDTA grew by 72 percent at Rs 205.62 crore for the same period.

Profit After Tax (PAT) more than doubled at Rs 103.79 crore in FY 2014-15 as against Rs 47.45 crore during the previous year, the company said.

Vijayaraghavan said 'judicious' use of inventory, higher growth in after market, bringing down material cost, softening of prices of major raw materials, reduction in fuel and power prices and increased cash generation resulting in interest reduction helped the company show 'significant rise in profit.

To a question, he said the company had ventured into tractor radials for exports to Europe and this was expected to be pursued within the next 12-18 months.

On the off-road tyres segment, the company was planning to produce tyres for earth-movers, he said.

He also clarified that the company had no plans to enter the four-wheeler segment even as it was 'leading' in the two and three-wheeler segment.