The international Indian-origin tyre manufacturer’s facility will start production in early 2017 at its first European Greenfield plant in Gyöngyöshalász, Hungary. The facility will produce both Apollo and Vredestein tyres, and will cater to the entire European market.
Viktor Orbán, Prime Minister of Hungary and Onkar S Kanwar, Chairman of Apollo Tyres, laid the foundation stone of the plant. The Gyöngyöshalász facility will be a state-of-the-art plant and will have a capacity to produce 5.5 million passenger cars and light truck tyres, and 675,000 heavy commercial vehicle tyres per annum. This facility will complement Apollo Tyres’ existing facility in the Netherlands, bringing the whole range of Apollo and Vredestein branded tyres to the European market. The plant is located less than 100 km from Budapest (capital city of Hungary).
Kanwar said, “This is a significant milestone for us at Apollo Tyres, considering that a few years back we didn’t have any presence in Europe, and today, we are looking at having our second manufacturing unit in place.”
The recruitment for the new factory has started at the beginning of this year and the company has already signed scholarship programmes with close to 90 technicians who will be contracted as employees from July 1. In the second half of the year, 150 more technicians will be employed, together with qualified engineers, to join the international tyre manufacturer’s team.