History

Balkrishna Industries Limited (BKT) is a company engaged in the business of manufacturing and selling various types of tyres, including Off-Highway Tyres (OHT) in specialist segments such as agriculture, construction, earthmovers and port, mining, forestry, etc. Headquartered in Mumbai, it sells products in 130 countries through a network of international distributors. Balkrishna Industries Ltd was incorporated on November 20, 1961. The company went public in 1963. The company set up its first plant in Aurangabad in 1987. In 2002-03, it acquired the automobile tyre plant belonging to Govind Rubber Ltd at Bhiwadi in Rajasthan. In FY 2004-05, it launched Tractor Radial Tyres. In FY 2012-13, Balkrishna Industries carried out a modernisation scheme at its existing plants, using capex worth ₹145 crore. In 2015, the company completed the greenfield tyre plant project at Bhuj, Gujarat. During FY 2020-21, the company set up a brownfield project for debottlenecking and the addition of balancing and ancillary equipment at their Bhuj plant. It enhanced the installed capacity of Carbon Black from an achievable capacity of 1,15,000 MTPA to 2,00,000 MTPA, including 30,000 MTPA of high-value advanced carbon black material. This led to an increased capacity for power generation in the captive power plant. It completed the expansion of the mixing facility and enhanced its warehousing capacity. It also commissioned the setting up of an ultra-large sized all-steel OTR Radial Tire Plant. It also commissioned the modernisation and automation of its Bhiwadi, Chopanki and Bhuj Plants.

Business Segments

The company is primarily engaged in the tyre business. Its paper and textile businesses have been delegated to its subsidiaries. Within the tyre segment, the company offers the following tyre types:

1. Agricultural tyres - Within this category, Balkrishna offers tyres for tractors, harvesters and ‘implements’ and each type has several patterns within them.
2. Industrial tyres - This category includes the subcategories of Loader, Backhoe Loader and Compact Loader.
3. OTR tyres - This category of off-the-road truck tyres comprises tyres like articulated dump truck tyres, rigid dump truck tyres and on/off tyres.

Of the total revenue from operations, 77.89% comes from exports and the remaining 22.11% from domestic sales. Subsidiaries As of 31 March 2023, the company had 1 domestic and 4 foreign wholly-owned subsidiaries. The domestic one is known as BKT Tires Ltd. The overseas subsidiaries are:

1. BKT Europe S.R.L.
2. BKT USA Inc.
3. BKT Tires (Canada) Inc.
4. BKT Exim US Inc.

The company also has one step-down subsidiary in the name of BKT Tires Inc., based in the USA, which is a 100% subsidiary of BKT Exim US, INC.

Key Personnel

Mr. Arvind Poddar, CMD Mr. Poddar succeeded his father, Shri Mahabirprasad Poddar, who founded the family-run company. Mr. Arvind Poddar became the chairman in 2016, and over the years, he has steered the company by adapting to changing times. Under him, the company’s performance coincided with strong demand across overseas territories, including Europe and the Americas, leading to the highest-ever volumes of sales. It is slowly expanding its market share in foreign geographies, including the US.

Corporate Actions

The company conducted the following corporate actions: Bonus Issue The company performed a bonus issue of stocks at 1:1 with the record date of December 23, 2017. Stock Split The company split its stock from the face value of ₹10 to ₹2 with the record date of December 21, 2010. Mergers and Acquisitions

• The company initially had 3 business activities under their umbrella, namely tyre, paper and textile processing. They transferred their paper business and textile processing business to the wholly owned subsidiaries, Balkrishna Paper Mills Ltd and Balkrishna Synthetic Ltd, respectively, effective from April 1, 2007.
• The Board of Directors of Balkrishna Industries, in 2016, allowed the amalgamation of its wholly owned subsidiary company M/s. BKT Exim Limited (Transferor Company) into itself.