Apollo Tyres will be focusing on internal consolidation including improving efficiency within its manufacturing plants using artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities, Neeraj Kanwar, the automotive tyre maker's Vice Chairman and Managing Director, told Moneycontrol at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
“Why we are going capex light is because we are focusing on efficiency and internal consolidation using AI and ML…We have got two innovation hubs where data scientists are sitting, one in London and one in Hyderabad, where we are analyzing machines and all the plants and equipment, all the data is now real-time in cloud,” Kanwar said.
Apollo Tyres' focus will be to analyse efficiencies within its plants as well as utilise the AI and ML data to find out consumer buying patterns.
“We are also taking AI for customer centricity. We will get demand accuracy and more from this data. AI will start teaching us on buying patterns of consumers,” Kanwar added.
On rising demand for EVs, Kanwar said that the firm has set up research and development for making EV tyres in India. The firm has recently launched EV tyres both in India and Europe, for two-wheelers and passenger cars,”
“EV tyres is not new, our R&D has been working on this. EV tyre requirement involves zero noise innovation and we need much more torque and rolling resistance, we are working our R&D on this for the past 4-5 years,” Kanwar said.
Cash is King
Talking about CEO’s sentiment across the globe, Kanwar said that while the geopolitical factors are making the year ahead very challenging, industry’s focus will be to be cautious in terms of spending.
“Currently we are getting into a challenging year, 40 countries are gonna go for voting and there are already two-wars going on. There is uncertainty and no clear sign of green light at the end of the tunnel. I guess the mood is to spend very cautiously, cash is king. As a company we are very optimistic,” He said.
Apollo Tyres on November 7 reported a two-and-a-half-fold rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 474.26 crore in the September quarter, riding on higher revenue and lower raw material costs.
The company had posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 179.39 crore in the same period last fiscal.
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