Apollo sees dent in full year sales, profits

Chennai, India – Apollo Tyres Ltd has seen its sales and profitabits decline for the financial year ended 31 March, due mainly to slow OE demand in India.

Operating profit declined 1.6% to INR19.6 billion (€250 million) for the financial year 2019-20 on 6.8% lower sales of INR161 billion (€2.0 billion), the tire maker announced 18 May.

Sales in the Indian market decline to INR112 billion, down from INR125 billion reported in the previous financial year.

The company’s Indian operations continued with its growth in the replacement market for the full year in most of the product categories. The OE segment, though improved sequentially in the fourth quarter, remained under pressure for the full year, Apollo added. 

Apollo's European operations also saw growth in “some of the product segments” for the full year. Sales in the region remained flat at INR52 million for the year.

“We saw some improvement in demand from OEs as well in the fourth quarter, before the widespread disruption caused by Covid-19 put us all in an uncharted territory,” said Apollo chairman Onkar Kanwar commenting on the results. 

Apollo halted production across its four tire plants in India and two European sites in late March and resumed partial manufacturing at the facilities by 25 April. 

With lockdowns easing, Kanwar said demand had started picking up gradually across product and market segments.