CEAT Ltd

CEAT, the flagship company of RPG Group, was established in 1958 as Ceat Tyres of India Ltd in collaboration with Tata Group. CEAT produces best-in-class, high performance tyres for a wide range of vehicles, including tyres for 2/3 Wheelers, Passenger and Utility Vehicles, Commercial Vehicles and Off-Highway Vehicles and produces over 45.07 Million Tyres in a year. The Company's business is manufacturing of automotive tyres, tubes and flaps. CEAT has footprint in over 110 countries across the world. CEAT has 6 manufacturing plants and 17 outsourcing units and plants are located in Nashik, Mumbai, Halol, Ambernath,Chennai and Nagpur. Ambernath plant is undertaken by CEAT's wholly owned subsidiary. CEAT also has a manufacturing facility in Sri Lanka through its overseas joint ventures. CEAT is aggressively working on expanding its manufacturing capacities across product; categories for 2-Wheeler tyres in Nagpur, Commercial Vehicles Radial tyre plant in Halol and Off-Highway tyres in Ambernath while also setting up a greenfield facility for Passenger Car tyres in Chennai. The company's network currently extends to more than 4,000 dealers & channel partners and over 35,000 sub-dealers. The company has 4 manufacturing facilities at Bhandup, Nashik, Nagpur and Halol and is setting up a green field project. It has its representative offices at Indonesia, Germany and the United Arab Emirates to serve customers in foreign markets. CEAT Specialty Tyres Limited (CSTL), a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company, is engaged in manufacturing and sale of tyres for off-the-road vehicles and equipments, which find application across industries including ports, construction, mining and agriculture. CSTL has set up an overseas subsidiary viz. CEAT Specialty Tires Inc. in USA. CEAT operates in Sri Lanka through a 50:50 Joint Venture (JV) named CEAT Kelani Holdings Company (Private) Ltd. Through CEAT Specialty Tyres Limited, its wholly owned subsidiary, CEAT has an off-highway tyre manufacturing plant at Ambernath, Maharashtra, which commenced commercial production in FY 2017-18. CEAT has invested heavily in the development of a state-of-the-art R&D centre at Halol to enable a funnel of innovative new products. Ceat Ltd. 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. 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 developing 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 fibreglass 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. Op- 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. CEAT has continuously focussed on new product launches and launched over a 100 new products in FY 2013-14. Product ranges like Gripp LN (low noise)' for passenger car radials and Zoom' for motorcycle tyres have been very successful. During the year under review, the company launched the Dhoom 3 branded, high-speed, special-edition tyres and also released video games based on the box-office monster. Its new Dhoom 3 tyre is targeted at the younger segment and has provided a boost to the company's image as a quality tyre manufacturer. CEAT's R&D division rolled out over a hundred products between Sri Lanka and India, across categories, in FY 2013-14. CEAT achieved a full ramp up of its Halol radial facility with 80 percent of its capacity utilisation in FY 2014. During the year under review, Rado Tyres Limited became a subsidiary of the company pursuant to the Order dated August 5, 2013 passed by the Board of Industrial and Financial Reconstruction. During the year under review, CEAT deferred a certain portion of its current maturities of long-term debt through fresh long-term funds, thereby improving the current ratio compared to the previous year. The company's robust performance enabled it to fetch a two-notch upgrade in the external credit rating assigned to its debt program, from BBB to A, by FITCH India Ratings. This will further strengthen the creditworthiness of the company in the market and help it improve on its finance cost. Pursuant to the special resolution passed by the company's shareholders through Postal Ballot on March 7, 2012, CEAT had on March 12, 2012 issued and allotted 17,12,176 Warrants to one of the Promoter Group Companies viz Instant Holdings Limited (Instant) on a preferential basis convertible into an equal number of equity shares of face value of Rs 10/- each at a price of Rs 85.03 per Warrant. Of the said price, 25% was received upfront at the time of allotment. The Warrants were convertible into equity shares at the option of the allottee within a period of 18 months from the date of allotment, i.e. by September 11, 2013. The allottee exercised its option for conversion of the said warrants by paying the balance 75% i.e. Rs 63.77 per Warrant and accordingly, the said warrants were converted in to 17,12,176 equity shares and allotted to Instant on July 23, 2013. These 17,12,176 equity shares were listed on the BSE Limited and the National Stock Exchange of India Limited on August 27, 2013. CEAT continued its focus on development of new products and launched a number of new products in FY 2014-15, which included tubeless tyres for 2-Wheelers, new size introduction for compact SUVs and off-road biking tyres. These products have received good responses in their respective markets and segments and contributed to 27% of the turnover. For CEAT's R&D division, the focus for the year was on developing products with superior grip, manifested in the dry and wet surface braking distance, to promote user safety without compromising on comfort. CEAT Shoppe network, an exclusive retail channel of the company, reached closed to 200 outlets as compared to 125 plus outlets at the end of March 31, 2014. Further, to increase the reach to replacement market in lower pop strata, the company has also expanded its presence in the sub-urban and rural areas, mainly for 2-wheeler and passenger car tyres. As a result of this distribution drive the number of districts covered has gone up to 460 from almost 375 in last financial year. During the year under review, CEAT embarked on a major capital expenditure programme to manufacture four wheeler passenger vehicle tyres and two/three wheeler tyres at its manufacturing facilities at Halol and Nagpur. CEAT Specialty Tyres Limited (CSTL) became a wholly owned subsidiary of CEAT with effect from 8 December 2014. Its business is manufacture and sale of tyres for off- the-road vehicles/equipment, which find application across industries including port, construction, mining and agriculture. During the year under review, CEAT had, pursuant to the special resolution passed by the members at the AGM held on September 26, 2014 and through Postal Ballot on November 24, 2014, issued and allotted 44,94,382 equity shares at a price of Rs. 890/- per share aggregating to Rs. 40,000 Lacs to the eligible investors by way of Qualified Institutional Placement in accordance with the Chapter VIII of the SEBI (Issue of Capital and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2009 (ICDR). The said shares were listed on the BSE Limited and the National Stock Exchange of India Limited on December 1, 2014. During the financial year ended 31 March 2016, CEAT launched a total of 70 new products. Notable product launches from CEAT in FY 2015-16 were Milaze, FuelSmarrt, CZAR Sport in PCR/UVR and Zoom Rad, Gripp XL, Pro Gripp and Milaze TL in the two-wheeler vehicle category. With regard to new product development, the high point for the year under review was product developments with superior grip, manifested in the dry and wet surface braking distance, to promote user safety without compromising on comfort.With an objective to penetrate further and improve customer reach, the Company continued to expand its distribution network. Further, to increase the reach in replacement market with lower population strata, the company has expanded its presence in the smaller towns and rural areas, through an extensive distributor network, mainly for two-wheeler and passenger car tyres. As a result, the number of districts covered has gone up to over 600 from around 460 in FY 2014-15. One key milestone for the company in the year gone by was adoption of its new purpose 'Making Mobility Safer and Smarter, Every day. CEAT commissioned a greenfield unit for manufacturing two-three wheeler tyres at Butibori, near Nagpur, Maharashtra in March 2016. The company had undertaken expansion of capacity at its Halol Plant by 120 MT/day for manufacturing with a capital outlay of Rs. 650 Crores, which is expected to be fully ramped up by first quarter of FY 2017-18. Towards this, CEAT already commissioned a capacity of 39 MT/day by the end of March 2016. In another key investment made during FY 2015-16, CEAT, through its subsidiary CEAT Specialty Tyres Limited (CSTL), invested in capacity for Off Highway Tyres (OHT) at Ambernath. The Ambernath land was transferred to CSTL in Q3 of FY 2015-16. During the year under review, CSTL commenced trading in Off- Highway tyres and sources these tyres from CEAT. CEAT has been following an 'asset-light approach' for its manufacturing to conserve capital and increase returns to shareholders. Over the years, the company's outsourcing business has grown substantially both in terms of volumes and quality systems. Focus at the outsourcing units continues to be on two and three-wheeler vehicle tyre categories. During the year under review, CEAT's key OEM customer gave their approval to the company's outsourcing locations, which indicates their confidence in the quality of control systems initiated by the company at the partner locations. During the year under review, CEAT's long term credit rating improved from A+ to AA- by its rating agencies viz. CARE and India Ratings (Fitch). The rating of AA- indicates high degree of safety regarding timely servicing of financial obligations and very low credit risk. During the financial year ended 31 March 2017, CEAT launched a total of 92 new products across different product categories. A breakthrough innovation in the form of Puncture Safe' motorcycle tyres was launched to address a key pain area of customers. The company has filed a patent for the same. In the Truck and Bus Radial (TBR) segment, the company launched the 'WIN Series' and grew by 15% in the TBR replacement market. During the year under review, the company continued its efforts for channel expansion, in a bid to maximise customer reach. In FY 2016-17, CEAT gained acceptance with premium brands in the OEM category viz. Royal Enfield Himalayan, Bajaj Vikrant, Honda Navi and Tork in two-wheelers and Verna Refresh, i10 refresh, Renault Sedan/ SUV and Nissan SUV in the PC/UV category. During the year under review, CEAT completed the capacity expansion undertaken at its Halol Plant and ramped the capacity to 120MT/day. The company also set-up a green field manufacturing plant at Nagpur with an initial capacity of 120 MT/day for manufacture of two-three wheeler tyres at a capital outlay of Rs 420 crores. During the year under review, CEAT s wholly owned subsidiary CEAT Specialty Tyres Limited (CSTL) commenced setting up of its green field facility at Ambernath, in the State of Maharashtra with an initial capacity of 40 MT/ day, which would subsequently be ramped up to 100 MT/day, in the next phase. Several marketing initiatives including Overdrive Kwid Drive from Delhi to Paris, MTV Roadies, MTV Chase the Monsoon and Mahindra Adventure were undertaken during the year. The company also strengthened its brand association with cricket through a bat endorsement by Ajinkya Rahane. During the year under review, the long term credit rating of the company improved from 'AA-' to 'AA' with 'Stable' outlook by its rating agencies viz. CARE and India Ratings (Fitch). The rating of AA indicates high degree of safety regarding timely servicing of financial obligations and very low credit risk. A Stable' outlook indicates expected stability (or retention) of the credit ratings in the medium term on account of stable credit risk profile of the entity in the medium term. During the year under review, CEAT discontinued its Fixed Deposit Scheme and repaid all the outstanding fixed deposits along with interest accrued up to 30 September 2016. During the financial year ended 31 March 2018, CEAT became the first tyre company in the world, outside Japan, to receive the Deming Prize in 2017. The Deming Prize recognises companies that achieve business transformation by implementing Total Quality Management (TQM). The Deming Prize reinforces and consolidates the company's reputation as a high-quality producer of tyres and enables the company to gain ideal partner status for leading automobile companies in the world. During the year under review, CEAT developed 65 new products. The company set up its European technical Centre at Frankfurt, Germany to focus on break through products for customers and focus on passenger segment. During the year under review, CEAT through its wholly owned subsidiary CEAT Specialty Tyres Limited commenced commercial production at the Ambernath plant for manufacture of off-the-road tyres for the specialty segment. During the year under review, the company has launched a new safety initiative 'CEAT Safety Grip', yet another step towards making Mobility Safer and Smarter Everyday'. To overcome the common problem of tyre slippage faced by farmers, the company's Aayushmaan tyres offered superior grip leading to better yield and efficiency. During the year under review, Tyresnmore Online Private Limited (TNM), a private limited company incorporated on June 2, 2014 having its registered office in New Delhi engaged in the business of selling automotive tyres, accessories and providing services of installing, fitting, wheel balancing and wheel alignment for automotive tyres, became an associate company of CEAT. On 23 June 2017, CEAT acquired approximate 31.93% of the fully diluted share capital of TNM by investing Rs 400 lacs through subscription of 50,855 Compulsorily Convertible Preference Shares (CCPS) of face of Rs 1 each and 100 Equity Shares of face of Rs 1 each of TNM. During FY 2017-18, CEAT initiated a European Tech Centre in Frankfurt, Germany; to meet the stringent regulations and challenging requirements of the more matured European markets. During the year 2018-19, the Company introduced 49 new products. The Company's network extends to more than 4,000 dealers and over 30,000 sub-dealers. The Company currently has 4 manufacturing facilities at Bhandup, Nashik, Nagpur and Halol and is setting up a new facility near Chennai. It has representative offices in Indonesia, Germany and the United Arab Emirates. The Company's subsidiary, Rado Tyres Limited (RTL) has discontinued its operation after exploring all opportunities to revive /lease out the factory. The Government of Kerala gave their consent to close the factory permanently, vide their letter dated October 6, 2018. In order to reduce the losses, RTL had offered Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) to all its employees and was successfully implemented. During the year 2019, the Company invested a further amount of Rs. 300 Lacs through subscription of 12,741 CCPS of the face value of Rs. 1 each of TNM, and thereby holding 36.96% of the total share capital of TNM. During the year, CEAT decided to merge CEAT Specialty Tyres Limited (CSTL) and the scheme was approved by the Board on April 3, 2019. During the FY2020, the company spent towards Capex amounting to Rs 1028 crore. During the year 2019-20, CEAT commissioned the initial phase of its greenfield project in Chennai, which has capacity to produce approximately up to 96 lacs tyres per annum of Passenger Car Radial Tyres when all the phases of the project is fully completed. CEAT's brownfield project in Nagpur is nearing completion of its first phase and the plant is likely to be commissioned in the coming financial year depending on supply and demand conditions. The capacity of the CEAT's 2-Wheeler Tyre capacity would be approximately 1.7 Crore tyres per annum when the project is fully completed. To date, CEAT has made investments in excess of Rs 2,000 Crore across its expansion projects in Chennai, Halol and Nagpur. More than Rs 3,500 Crores has been earmarked for capacity expansion projects and this includes investments made in Halol, Nagpur and Chennai capacity expansion. The remaining investments will be made in a staggered manner over the next 3 years. The company ranked among top 20 companies having innovative diversity policies and practices by DivHERsity Award 2020. The company awarded for Best Risk Management Framework and Systems in Auto Ancillary segment from CNBC-TV18. The company also received Top Export Award by All India Rubber Industries Association for Excellence in Export for FY 2018-19. Also Awarded for Best Innovation in Employee Engagement and Best Use of Technology and Employee Engagement at Employee Engagement Summit and Awards 2020. On 19 August 2020, the company received the certified copy of the order from NCLT,sanctioning the scheme of amalgamation of its subsidiary company CEAT Specialty Tyres Ltd with CEAT Ltd.The scheme takes effect from the Appointed Date being the 01 April 2019 and becomes operative from the effective date 01 September 2020. The company has issued 2500 Non-Convertible Debentures of face value of Rs 10 lakhs each aggregating to Rs 250 crore on private placement in October 2020. During FY 2021, Company automated certain processes forming part of Corporate Accounting, Export Collections, Import Collections, E-Collections and GST Vendor Reconciliation with the help of data analytics tools, automating routine tasks, transforming from manual data entry to digitized data collection and creating simplified dashboards. During the year 2021, the Company took dedicated initiatives with focus on enhancing the efficiency of its operations. Plants in Bhandup, Nashik, Halol and Nagpur have progressed significantly in improving the energy efficiency. The plants in Chennai & Nagpur were awarded Platinum rating whereas, Halol plant received Gold rating by Indian Green Building Council (IGBC). It inaugurated 6th plant in India based in Kanchipuram near Chennai. This was followed by launch of Phase-II of Nagpur plant in August, 2020, which primarily caters to demands of two-wheeler tyre segment. The Company implemented Siemens' Manufacturing Execution System (MES) in its Nagpur and Chennai plants, while Halol plant already has a bespoke MES. In FY 2020-21, the Company made several key strategic investments like investments into Computer Aided Designs (CADs), customization, Product LifeCycle Management (PLM) upgrades, supplier collaboration modules, simulation automation, material & testing lab digitization and Manufacturing Execution System (MES). During the year 2021, the Company enhanced its production at the newly inaugurated greenfield manufacturing facility near Chennai for Passenger Vehicle Tyre and commissioned Phase-II of the Nagpur plant to produce 2-Wheeler Tyres for commercial purpose. On April 20, 2022 the Company incorporated a wholly owned subsidiary, CEAT Auto Components Limited'. The Company launched industry first products like Colour Tread Wear Indicator (TWI). It launched a few new technologies at manufacturing plants such as 'Bias Belted Tyre technology' and 'Tandem Mixer' in Chennai and 'Intermix' at Halol In house bladder devulcanization technology & spring vent technology for 2W tyres. Digital Premier League (DPL) was launched in FY 2021-22 to create awareness and enhance digital skilling of its employees. In FY 2022, the Company commenced construction of its new Truck Bus Radial tyre capacity at its greenfield project in Chennai. During FY 2020-21, CEAT Specialty Tyres Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company, (the Transferor Company) was merged with the Company via Scheme of Amalgamation. And as a result of said Amalgamation, the assets and liabilities pertaining to the Transferor Company were transferred and vested into it, effective from April 1, 2019. During the year 2022-23, 170 new products were launched. It launched a new platform for passenger utility vehicles in CrossDrive; It launched a new category of EV products range EnergyDrive (Passenger car), EnergyRide (2 Wheeler) and WinEnergyX3R (Truck Radial) etc. It launched Crossdrive AT, Energy Drive EV (TATA Nova, PSA eCCA4) apart from the products launched. It launched EV tyre platforms in India and Truck Bus Radial Tyres in Europe. .