BKT (Balkrishna Industries Limited), one of the leading Off-highway tire manufacturers, which has been in the business for around 3 decades, is poised to grow its presence overseas and more than double its turnover to $2 billion by 2020, through a slew of product innovation, marketing, and brand-building strategies.
Being a well-diversified Indian industrial conglomerate emerging globally as the preferred supplier to major OEMs in construction, agricultural, and industrial tire segments, BKT, unlike others, embarked upon doing things differently instead of doing different things and enjoys the privilege of being one of the country's largest tires exporters out of India.
The seeds of success were sowed in the early 1990s when the other tire companies in India were busy producing Highway tires for mass use mostly, Chairman and Managing Director at BKT, Mr. Arvind Poddar foresaw a unique opportunity in International business and audaciously initiated production in the 'Off Highway' segment. BKT's products, in short span of time, owing to its unmatched quality and performance, found unexpected recognition in World markets, and there began an unending story of BKT's triumph and innovation.
Today, with over 92% production being exported to over 130 countries across five continents, the company is focusing with a three-fold strategy of expanding its reach in the global market through the launch of new products and extension of its existing ranges. The vision is to double its current Six percent market share in speciality segment.
Designing, developing and releasing around 150-160 new tire sizes each year, BKT provides 2300 different SKUs (Stock Keeping Units) for various kinds of applications. It is the first tire company in India to produce the all-steel radial OTR tires, thus joining an elite class of all-steel OTR manufacturers in the world. It has products from 5" rim diameter to 54" rim diameter.
With products available for the traditional vehicles like Dumpers, Graders, Trailers, Forklifts, Implements etc. to the technologically advanced machines like high horsepower tractors, combines, harvestors, GPS controlled vehicles, Articulated Dump Trucks, High-Speed cranes, sophisticated port vehicles & container handlers, etc., BKT, today has established its strong presence in the industrial, construction, and agricultural tire segments and becomes a 'One-Stop- Shop' for all off-highway tire solutions. Moreover, for the high power tractors, it has the latest 'IF' technology tires which can be used at low pressure on the field as well as the road.
BKT is consistently maintaining the quality of tires and its each product has to cross over 450 tough testing stages during the entire manufacturing process and then brings out one of the most reliable product in terms of the lowest claim ratio in the industry. The in-house mould design and production unit at Dombivali (Maharashtra) has enabled the company in achieving production flexibility and frequent change-over in the production cycle within a short time, resulting in a faster 'concept-to-market product rollout.
As of today, BKT has state-of-the-art manufacturing units at Aurangabad (Maharashtra), Bhiwadi & Chopanki (Rajasthan), and Bhuj (Gujarat). With its emphasis and regular investment in the R&D, it complies with all national & international regulatory, statutory and pollution control norms. Being the first Off-Highway Tire manufacturer in India to be REACH compliant for its entire range of products, BKT has achieved the International Standard for Quality Management System (ISO 9001:2008) & Environmental Manag- ement System (ISO 14001:2004) certification.
Despite many challenges from the economic scenario and "me-too" companies (which without their production capabilities or focus on quality, are trying for a pie of OHT segment), BKT has grown exponentially with around 30% CAGR in the past 6 years. All in all, BKT endeavors a holistic approach in its operations with belief in offering a wide range of products, best quality, marketing and training support, reasonable prices, best after sales service, consistency and transparency in its dealings ensuring the company's reliability all over the world. It is working intensively to be at tandem with the emerging needs of its OEM clients and has the shortest response period amongst its competitors when it comes to delivering a new product while keeping the costs low and efficiency high adhering to the stringent most international standards.
'Growing together' and 'Sustainability', sums up the company's philosophy, being its mantra for continuous growth.
