The Indian government is currently investing heavily in road infrastructure with over 60 road projects being announced worth over $10 bn. Indeed, the Indian road construction sector is expected to exhibit a CAGR of 36.16% during the period from 2016-2025 as a result of these initiatives, a trend which is having a positive impact on the retreading industry.
This was a key topic for discussion in a recent interview with Akansha Naik, who handles sales and marketing at the Nashik, Maharashtra-based Elgi franchisee Anand Tyre Retreading Services. The family-owned site has continued to grow and almost doubled its monthly output during the lockdown period.
“Government backed road projects have continued to move on even during the worst of times in pandemic, therefore, we focused on contractors involved in road projects as well as other state-owned dam construction projects,” said Naik. Results were encouraging, as the orders started rolling in. Earlier, we were focusing on transporters, fleets, LPG tankers etc.,” she added.
The Nashik plant was retreading about 550 tyres each month during the pre-pandemic phase but doubled production to 900 tyres during lockdown and is maintaining the same output as normalcy returns. The surge in volumes has led Anand Tyre Retreading Services to install a third autoclave at its Nashik site.
Moreover, the retreader is even travelling the extra mile to bring business. “We moved out of the Nashik market to the whole of the Marathwada region in Maharashtra and to up to Pune and Mumbai,” she explained. The company has been growing on an average 30% annually during the last few years.
Now the next focus is to break the credit cycle, which has become a regular feature in the industry. “We will soon a introduce payment system which features different discount rates on advanced payment, payment on delivery and on post-dated cheques. This is going to be one of the biggest challenges for us, but if it is implemented properly, capital inflow into the business will drastically improve,” she assured.
Make sure you don't miss a single issue
Click here to subscribe and we'll make sure of it.
