Bridgestone targets leadership in premium tyres for passenger vehicles in India

Bridgestone India, which is a key player in the country's passenger car radial (PCR) and truck-and-bus radial (TBR) tyre categories, both in the direct-OE supply and aftermarket segments, is confident of maintaining its leadership as a premium-mass brand in the world’s third-largest automobile market.

The Japanese tyre brand, which clocked around 9.5 million units in CY2024 in the Indian market, sees a 55% contribution coming from the replacement category in the aftermarket. Bridgestone India anticipates 5-6% growth over the next five years and, with India as a key growth market in Bridgestone's global portfolio, Bridgestone plans to invest US$ 85 million (Rs 708 crore) into augmenting its operations and manufacturing capacity in India by CY2029. 

According to Rajarshi Moitra, Executive Director, Bridgestone India, “On the consumer business (PCR) side, Bridgestone has outlined that India is a core market for the brand for driving growth. Therefore, our strategy is to be a premium-mass leader. We want to be premium in every segment that we play – be it small cars, sedans, or SUVs.”

As per Moitra, Bridgestone India's strategy is pivoted on three key pillars – premium products such as Turanza 6i, a premium channel and lastly, driving the overall customer experience. The investment of US$ 85 million to augment capacity in India will go towards the main plant in Chakan, Pune, in line with the expected growth in the market. “We will expand our existing annual capacity of around 10 million units to be ready with an expanded capacity of 11.1 million units by 2029. The US$ 85 million investment will begin in CY2028, and get completed by CY2029, adding a capacity of 1.1 million units.” 

Highlighting the India-specific investment, he said: “We are an India-for-India business, and this capacity will cater purely to the growing domestic market.”

Betting big on bigger tyres
To garner more market share in the direct-OE supply market, Bridgestone India plans to leverage a segment-focused strategy. This, according to Moitra, is “to play with certain OEMs in certain segments in the direct-OE supply space.” On the replacement side, the company aims to maintain its premium-mass leadership and sharpen its focus on gaining more market share. 

In May 2024, Bridgestone India launched the Dueler All-Terrain 002 premium tyre with enhanced grip and stability for SUVs.

“With a premiumising market, Bridgestone’s strength as well as our focus is the 16-inch-and above segment, where the Bridgestone brand salience is quite strong. On the other hand, the small-car category – 12- to 15-inch segment – is something that we play very selectively,” Moitra said. The company says that with the transition in the market towards bigger tyre sizes, it has pinned its growth strategy to revolve around the 16-inch-and above category. 

“Having said that, the 12- to 15-inch segment is still a very large portion of the vehicle parc, and we will continue to hold our leadership as a premium-mass player. Therefore, a premium-mass leadership means that we will play all the segments and we will play a premium game by focusing on driving superior customer value in each of these segments,” he pointed out. 

The investment of US$ 85 million to expand capacity in India to 11.1 million units will go towards the main manufacturing plant in Chakan, Pune. 

Enhancing capabilities in India
While the company is investing in capacity expansion, it will also invest in capability enhancement, in terms of producing higher rim sizes or more premium tyres focusing on high performance. “At our mother plant in Indore, we are looking at increasing our manufacturing capabilities, while at Chakan, we are focusing on both capacity and capability enhancement,” added Moitra.

Beyond the planned expansion at its Pune plant, the company will define its next phase of investments early next year, and could explore both greenfield and brownfield expansions, after 2029. “Currently, our manufacturing footprint is in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, but when we decide for future expansion, all the variables, including presence of the industry, state tax benefits, will come into consideration,” Moitra said.

“While at this stage, we have not made any investment decision beyond the US$ 85 million, we will continue to invest in India to further strengthen our premium-mass positioning and ride the growth trajectory of the market,” he added. 

Network expansion strategy 
To realise its growth targets, Bridgestone India is set to expand its retail network in the country. While the company presently operates through over 3,200 multi-brand tyre dealers across India, it has a captive network of almost 820 Bridgestone-exclusive retail outlets, termed Bridgestone Select. 

In terms of market segmentation, Moitra highlights that the rural market (Tier-3 and Tier-4) in India is growing much faster than the urban segment, which continues to be a large demand base. “Therefore, both centres become equally important for us and our channel play is very catered at a Tier, and town-class level.”

“We exited CY2024 with a network strength of 3,200 dealers and 820 Select outlets. We expect to expand our Select channel by 10% in CY2025, and 50% of it is going to come from Tier-3 and Tier-4 towns. We are also expanding our non-family channel to grow our numeric distribution. We are eyeing another 8-10% numeric distribution expansion this year,” he revealed. 

According to Moitra, there is rapid urbanisation presently taking place in rural areas, with growing consumer aspirations. These customers are seeking premium services, and are starting to behave like semi-urban customers. This trend is very good for India, and that is where our strategy to expand our Select outlets in Tier-3 and Tier-4 markets, aligns with the market evolution.

The company focuses on providing a differentiated experience at the Bridgestone Select outlets through a robust training mechanism to offer top-notch tyre fitment service, and tyre care. “We are also driving online-to-offline customer experience by getting the customers to these outlets that ensure a certain level of quality assurance,” Moitra said. 

“We are constantly studying and innovating ways of enhancing the ease of doing business between the company and our dealer partners. We launched the second-generation version of our e-Bridge dealer portal in 2024, and the platform facilitates ordering, and payments, all on a single platform. We are also looking at enhancing our consumer experience by leveraging technology, which is an accelerator in this regard. For instance, we have a global best practice of conducting a tyre check after 100km of driving upon a new tyre fitment, and such measures are easier to implement within our family channel,” he added. 

Satellite Tech Centre in Pune 
Bridgestone, which has four technology centres globally in Japan, Thailand, Italy, and the US, has recently set up a satellite technology centre deploying a small team of core engineers who are acting as a window between the Indian market and Bridgestone's key R&D hubs in Japan and Thailand. 

According to Moitra, “The satellite technology centre will serve two purposes of getting a deeper understanding of the Indian market, both from a product development as well as raw material standpoint, and translate it to the centres in Thailand and Japan.” He further added that the company will also be adding certain testing capabilities, particularly around tyre rolling resistance in India, to have faster turnaround times. 

In addition, Bridgestone India will continue undertaking road tests of products in India by leveraging facilities such as NATRAX in Pithampur, Indore. The Bridgestone satellite technology centre in Pune will be commissioned from Q3 of CY25, Moitra concluded.