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INDIA
Retread Accessory Outlet in the Middle of Chennai
General Tyres to Open Fourth Plant by End 2018
Driving through the by-lanes of Chennai’s oldest auto market in Anna Salai, Amman Enterprises was spotted right in the middle of the crowded streets full of old and idle vehicles parked everywhere. The area was full of mechanics walking around with soiled clothes repairing vehicles.
Our driver somehow managed to find a space to park the car and this correspondent walked inside the cabin of a huge shop stocked with all kinds of retreading materials right from patches to tools to spares of equipment.
“We have been selling almost everything in retreading for the last 35 years, you just name it and we have it here,” said N K Nachimuthu of Amman Enterprises. The company sells an endless list of items like retreading tools, vulcanising materials, tubes, flaps, air inflators, air gauges, tubeless tyre wiring of all sizes, envelopes from all major brands, cushion gum etc.
Talking about the market, he explained, “This is an old auto market, everything is available here from old vehicles to spares, old casings as well as four small retread shops also.”
Amman Enterprises is at the nerve centre of the business as retreaders visit the outlet from Chennai but also from the adjoining states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Pudducherry to source old casings, retreading accessories and tools. According to him, “Chennai has about 70 retreading plants with 15-20 being considered as from the organised segment.”
Even small traders from nearby states visit Amman Enterprises to buy various retreading products to further sell on to retread outlets. On the changing retreading scenario, he observed, “The market has changed over the years as retreading used to be simple earlier, but now it is getting modernised, retreaders are investing in their units to improve production.”
However, he was somewhat sceptical about GST and its impact over small retread outlets, “There is a lot of confusion among traders. It is too early to comment on its impact on the small retread outlets, but we are sure business will not be the same as it used to be,” he said.
One of the biggest
retreaders in
Chennai says it is
putting on
temporary hold a
planned expansion
and new plant
opening due to the
market correction,
which is underway
due to various tax
reforms initiated
by the Indian
government. The
implementation of
GST is bringing
some fundamental
changes in the way
business has been
done in India.
Various sectors of
the Indian industry
are adjusting to the
new tax system,
which is bringing
in ambit the
business hitherto unaccounted. General Tyres has also been working on transforming itself into a modern retreading organisation, aligning the whole retreading process with an online platform. “We have been working on tuning our retreading plants with fully- fledged Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) that updates each and every activity of our operation going on at various retreading plants in Chennai right from collecting the casing from the customer until the tyre’s delivery with the date and timing of each activity,” explained George Mathew, Director, General Tyres. Commenting on expansion in key cities, he said “Once things stabilise, we will expand in the port city of Tuticorin and the industrial town of Hosur, but until then we will streamline the whole business in our three operational units,” he confirmed.
Currently, the Elgi franchisee operates three plants in Chennai at Poonamallee, Madhavaram and Mount Road. “We have postponed the opening of the plant at Maalaimalar as the market was passing through turmoil due to demonetisation and the later introduction of GST. We are now considering opening at Maalaimalar at the end of 2018,” he assured. The company first forayed into retreading in 1963 by opening a retreading unit in Kenya, which later closed when the family moved back to Chennai.
The Mount Road plant started in 1978 and retreads 500 tyres per month, the Madhavaram plant opened in 1988 retreading 450 tyres every month, while the Poonamallee plant is the newest plant retreading 500 tyres a month. The fourth proposed plant at Maalaimalar would operate at the 500 tyres per month level. General Tyres has also launched a vehicle monitoring service (VMS) ‘Fleetrac’ promoted as a solution for the easiest way to monitor and dispatch vehicles. The GPS enabled Fleetrac assists real time and history tracking of fleet location, time, speed, fuel, temperature and other statistical data of the vehicle. General Tyres also introduced Wiz Wash for long distance fleets recently and has received positive response from some of the large fleet owners based in Chennai. Wiz Wash is marketed as a safer, quicker, cost-efficient cleansing formula, which cleans the windshield and makes it as good as sparkling new. “Lots of Bharat Benz customers are using it,” said Mathew.
Now, the company’s next project is the introduction of a Tyre Maintenance Policy (TMP) in order to calculate real time mileage of new tyres as well as retreaded casings of fleet owners. “We are now working on the TMP, and it will likely to be ready in the next eight months,” said Mathew.
George Mathew, Director, General Tyres
N K Nachimuthu of Amman Enterprises
30 Retreading Business