New Delhi, Apollo Tyres on Thursday said that it will lay off about 1,500 of its contract and casual workers of its total workforce of 8,000-10,000 across the country.
“We will lay off around 15 per cent of our total workforce. We have already started the process since last quarter,” said Mr Onkar Kanwar, Chairman and Managing Director, Apollo Tyres, at the sidelines of the annual general meeting of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
He, however said, “All our plants are running 24x7 except one of our plants (Kochi) which has some other issues.” The company has four plants, one each near Baroda, Kalamassery and Kochi in Kerala and Haryana.
Truck and bus sales have been declining in the past few months. Last month, sales were down 15 per cent. Even for cars, sales have fallen by 3 per cent from the same period last year. In the case of trucks, according to industry estimates lack of freight on the account of a slowdown in manufacturing and construction activities has also shrunk the demand for tyres in the replacement market by 25-30 per cent.
Mr Kanwar said the company would maintain a better growth than the industry. “The industry average is expected to be at 11 per cent. Our top-line is likely to be at about 19 per cent in the current fiscal on a year-on-year basis. As far as the bottomline is concerned, it will be better than before.”
Source : Business Line (Online Edition) (2/12/2009)
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