company overveiwOn the road since 1958, CEAT has run up to be one of the best tyre manufacturers in the

business.
We not only make trailblazing tyres, but also market tubes and flaps. And that's not all. At CEAT we personify our business; tough yet smooth, secure yet ready to explore the undaunted. We are young and revving to go; with a maturity that comes with years of market presence. More than 3500 Cr annual turnover, an impressive list of clients and OEMs, various awards and certificates are statistics that could speak for us. But we'd rather scorch the road with our performance! We believe that tyres are not just accessories; they are the force that moves your aspirations. With us you get to choose from a wide range of tyres that suit your needs and vehicle type. (Not to mention, our radials are racers in the world market!) Strength is one of the most important attributes of our products, which complements our solid foundation as a part of RPG Enterprises. Our commitment to quality ensures that you have a safe ride, always. So go on, defy destiny. This road leads to a million places yet!

company profile

Ceat Ltd, a part of the RPG conglomerate is one of the leading tyre manufacturers in India. The company offers the widest range of tyres to leading Original Equipment Manufacturers across the world. They manufacture a range of tyres catering various segments, which includes tires for heavy duty trucks and buses (T&B), light commercial vehicles (LCVs), earthmovers and forklifts (specialty segment), tractors, trailers, passenger cars (PC), motorcycles, scooters and autorickshaws. They produce over 7 million tyres a year and commands around 13% share of the Indian tyre market. The company operates two plants in Maharashtra, one in Bhandup and the other in Nasik. They have a robust national network consisting of 34 regional offices and over 3,500 dealers among which approximately 100 are exclusive dealers running the CEAT Shoppe outlets for passenger cars segments and 96 exclusive dealers running the CEAT HUBs for Truck & Bus Segments. The company has their presence in 110 countries. Ceat Ltd was incorporated in the year 1958 as Ceat Tyres of India Ltd in collaboration with Tata Group. The company was established with the main object to construct, produce, prepare, manufacture, press, vulcanize, repair, retread, purchase, sell, import and to deal in tyres, semi-tyres for all types of vehicles and inner tubes, flaps and repairs material in general. Over the last 50 years, the company has established a strong presence in both the domestic and the international markets. In February 22, 1960, the first tyre rolled out from the company's factory at Bhandup in Mumbai. In the year 1972, they set up a Research and Development unit at their plant in Bhandup. In the year 1981, Deccan Fibre Glass Ltd was amalgamated with the company with effect from June 1, 1981. In the year 1982, the RPG Group acquired the company. The company along with the Pradeshiya Industrial and Investment Corporation of UP Ltd. promoted a joint venture company, namely UPCOM Cables Ltd in technical collaboration with Ceat Cari of Italy. During the year, CTI Investments Ltd, Ceat Investment Ltd and Ceat Finance Co Ltd became the wholly owned subsidiaries of the company. The company also entered into a collaboration agreement with Yokohama Rubber Company of Japan in order to keep abreast of the technological progress in the tyre industry as also to develop radial tyres suitable to the Indian road conditions. In the year 1983, Atlantic Holdings Ltd and Malabar Coastal Holdings Ltd, became the subsidiaries of the company. In the year 1987, the company entered into a technical collaboration agreement with Toray Industries Inc of Japan for setting up a factory for the production of nylon industrial yarn/cord and nylon tyre cord fabric at Malanpur, in Madhya Pradesh. In the year 1988, the company entered into an agreement with Boseki Co Ltd, Japan for improved technology for expansion of the licensed capacity of the fibre glass division to 5,000 tonnes per annum. In August 1988, Meteoric Industrial Finance Co Pvt Ltd became a subsidiary of the company and in July 1989, Murphy India Ltd amalgamated with the company. The company changed their name from Ceat Tyres of India Ltd to Ceat Ltd on January 10, 1990. In the year 1993, the company entered into a collaboration agreement with Yokohama Rubber Company of Japan for the manufacture of Tyres at Nasik plant. In the year 1996, the company launched a new radial car tyre 'Maestro', the first radial tyre in India to use state-of-the-art polyester tyre cord technology combined with steel belts. They also launched a new heavy-duty product 'Stamina', which is a light commercial vehicle tyre. The radial tyre plant has commenced commercial production in Nasik and the formula one radial tyre was received in the market. Ceat is the first tyre company in India was awarded the International accreditation ISO/TS 16949 2002 Quality Standard Certification. The company entered into agreement with Pirelli of Italy for outsourcing radial tyres, which were marketed in the brand name, CEAT Spider Radials During the year 2004-05, Malabar Coastal Holdings Ltd ceased to be a subsidiary company with effect from January 1, 2005. During the year 2005-06, CEAT Ventures Ltd, CEAT Holdings Ltd and Meteoric Industrial Finance Company Ltd, the wholly owned subsidiary companies amalgamated with the company with effect from April 1, 2006. During the year 2006-07, Associated Ceat Kelani Venture, the joint venture company in Sri Lanka commissioned their radial plant. During the year 2007-08, the company proposes to set up two grassroot plants, one in Maharashtra for Specialty Tyres and the other for Radial Tyres for Cars, Utility Vehicles and Trucks at a total capital outlay of about Rs 900 crore. In March 2008, the company sold nearly seven acres of surplus land at Bhandup in Mumbai for Rs 1.3 billion. During the year 2008-09, the company successfully implemented the scheme of arrangement and consequently, the investment undertaking of the company was transferred to CHI Investments Ltd with effect from July 1, 2007. The company is in the process of setting up a plant in Halol, Gujarat with the initial capacity of 90 mt per day and a planned outlay of approximately Rs 500 crore. The plant is expected to be ready for commercial production during the financial year 2010-11.

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1.1. Conclusions 1.1.1. A high percentage of fibre glass produced in the world is used for re inforcement of plastics The main products maiketed by the fibre glass plants are Mats, Rovings, Woven Rovings, Yarns etc. The use of end products i.e. fibre glass reinforced plastics are mostly in pipes and tanks, boats transport sector, furniture, crash helmets e tc 1.1.2. The formulation chosen for continuous fibre glass production is generally known as E-glass. This has become standard the world over as it performs well in practice and is used widely. The fibre glass produced in India is Eglass only. The process of manufacture of fibre glass consists of several steps e.g. batch preparation, production of glass melt, glass filament conditioning, winding, drying of glass cakes, conversion to saleable products. 1.1.3. In late seventies, the background of the licensing policy was to issue a large number of letters of intent with a capacity of 2000 Tonnes per annum expandable to 4000 tonnes per annum capacity. At that time only one unit Fibre Glass RlWngton (FGP) was working at Thane-Bombay with a licensed capacity of 1290 tonnes per annum. Out of 6 letters of intent issued, only 2 units i.e. Deccan Fibre Glass Ltd, (now known as Glass Fibre Division, CEAT Tyres) and UP Twiga Fibre Glass Limited (now closed since December 1982) were installed in early eighties. The other units did not materialise mainly due to inadequate market demand The present guideline of licensing is that no new licence is to be issued till 1990, since the installed capacity in the country is around 5000 tonnes per annum against the present demand of 2400 tonnes per annum. 1.1.4. FGP Ltd, started production in mid sixties with remelt technology based on imported E-glass marbles. In 1974 they started their own unit melter for

manufacture of E-glass with a licensed melting capacity of 1290 tonnes per annum #nd the installed finishing equipment capacity of 2650 tonnes per annum. The company is functioning with about 70 to 80 per cent of their licensed capacity. 1.1.5. UP TWIGA Fibre Glass Ltd, was started in 1980 at Sikandrabad in Ottar Pradesh. The capacity of the plant is 2000 tonnes per annum with electric Pochet Furnace. The unit could not develop proper market for its products. The unit, had to close down in December 1982 and has not restarted as yet 11.1.6. Deccan Fibre Glass Ltd, came into being in 1981 at Ntehboobnagar in Andhra Pradesh. In 1983 the unit was merged with CEAT Tyres Ltd, and is presently known as Glass Fibre Division, CEAT Tyres Ltd, The installed capacity is 1770 tonnes per annum with electric Pochet Furnace. The p er formance of the unit is not satisfactory and the production varies betwen 40 to 50 per cent of licensed capacity. The main reason for dismal capacity utilization is inadequate market demand 1.1.7. AW the three fibre glass units were put up with foreign collaboration. The collaboration agreements were more or less similar, irrespective of the country of collaboration. The major scope of collaboration wa s: a) Provision of technology b) Basic engineering of the plant c) Detailed engineering and design of special equipment and supply of materials d) Procurement and supply of special equipment e) Commissioning and Supervisory services.

f) Arrangement of training of personnel in collaborator's place The activities of the three manufacturing units from collaboration angle may broadly be tabulated as follows:

CEAT Tyres-Developing a strategy for increasing market share

on: May 24, 2011, 11:10:41 PM

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The tyre segment is a fit and forget category and the product involvement is low. The functional benefits of the tyre matter most to the customer. Very few customers are aware of the technicalities of the tyre and majority of them believes that tyre is something that sole purpose is to drive their vehicle. Tyre purchase is a reactive process- the customer purchases tyre only when it see that old tyre has been damaged (90%) or told by the mechanics (10%).But at the same time there can be some systematic purchase of tyre in which after a fixed period of time or after a fixed distance they prefer to change the tyre. This type of customer accounts for maximum 10% of the entire customer base. The customers know about the brands but they are not completely influenced by the brand rather the quality, brand and price completely comes into picture in their purchase. They do have some predetermined notion about the tyre (85%) but they are not adamant about their choice and they can switch their decision due to various reasons like dealers advice, customer preference in the shop and some other impulsive factor like look of tyre and some warranty or some attractiv e prices. The needs, preferences, buying behavior, decision pattern of each segment are carried out extensively and then the dealers role and its importance and capability are studied. An snapshot of product portfolio of o ur competitors like Bridgestone, MRF and Apollo has also been carried out and their advantage over Ceat is also being examined. The price and the discount offered to dealer by various competitors are also covered in tabular format and the best strategy, extracted from that is also examined. In the final part the strategy based on these findings are derived and all the strategies are backed by some cross functional analysis of the different set of customers. The ceat has come out to be a very formidable brand and the Ceat doesnt want to come as a cheap brand in the market. The ceat market share is growing and the strategies are kept in mind keeping the goal of coming among the market leader like Bridgestone, Jk and MRF. The report is based on the primary research that was carried out in Mumbai city. This was purely a qualitative study and there was no use of any special marketing tool used for the study. The assumptions that were made were based on

popular perspective. This report has successfully segmented Last mile segment on the basis of application and their psychographic studytheir attitude, life style, order of preference in day to day life and Media habits has also been discussed. This report All the recommendations of report i.e. strategies devised are totally extracted from the data collection from the primary findings and the analysis was completely done by me based on the knowledge, I gained in the MBA college, market experience and some secondary study as a whole. This report is a partial but exhaustive study of the application based segments in the Last Mile category. The key findings indicate that Ceat should aggressively pursue its marketing strategy especially promotional strategy and should create the spark as across the target group. As well as there should be proper supply of product in different locations

Brand Update : Ceat wants you to be Idiot Safe

Ceat went in for a major rebranding exercise in 2008 when it changed its logo, the mascot and the famous tagline " Born Tough". I was very critical about the whole rebranding exercise especially the decision to discard the Rhino (mascot) and the tagline. The logic for the rebranding was to make the brand contemporary and relevant to the new generation consumers.

Although the company spent some money on rebranding campaign in 2008, it again went in on a silent mode for almost two years . There was virtually no campaign for Ceat in this period. Recently the brand has started making some noise in the media with a series of brand campaigns. The current campaign for Ceat is for its bike tyres. The campaign is dubbed " Be Idiot Safe ". The campaign runs on the theme that ' Roads are full of idiots and be idiot-safe with Ceat Tyres". Watch the ad here : Be Idiot Safe

The ads are currently focusing on the " better road grip " feature of Ceat bike tyres. Road grip is an important ,relevant feature as far as tyres are concerned and Ceat has tried to own up that feature.

Along with the 'Be Idiot Safe " television campaign, the brand has tried to take up this idea into the internet by launching the brand site " beidiotsafe.com". The brand tried to engage users by inviting interesting videos about those idiots on the road. Users can upload the videos about rash driving and careless road habits onto the sites. The brand expects that these funny videos will be viral and increase the brand's visibility on the web. I am not sure whether the site had managed to sustain interest among the netizens. Another interesting aspect of Ceat's brand strategy is that it chose to have different theme for its different product-lines. While " Be idiot-safe " theme is for bike tyres, the brand have a different theme for its SUV product range. For the SUV range, the brand has adopted the tagline " Takes the wild out of wilderness ". That means Ceat will have separate positioning for its various products. In branding perspective, that is not a good strategy. The multiple positioning can dilute the core brand's positioning unless there is a common thread passing through the various positioning campaigns. MRF uses multiple positioning campaigns for its various products but these product lines have sub-brands. In the case of Ceat, there is no sub-brands but only product descriptors . It would work well if Ceat can think of a core brand positioning for the brand - CEAT. This core brand positioning will be reflect what the brand CEAT stands for. Then use sub-brands for its product-lines like SUV, bike tyres, car tyres etc .The brand can then use different positioning campaigns for the sub-brands. The sub-brand's positioning should be in line with the core brand's positioning but the sub-brands will have freedom to chose its own relevant themes