‘Sustainability critical to business success’
London-based Neeraj Kanwar, the 50-year-old Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Apollo Tyres, has managed to turn the Gurugram-headquartered company into one of the most recognisable auto brands in the world. In the last five years, Kanwar has grown the company’s turnover from $450 million to $2.34 billion. He now has a new mission: sustainable development. But that won’t be a cakewalk, especially since he makes tyres, one of the most polluting auto parts. Tyres are the second-largest source of primary microplastic pollution in the ocean after single-use plastic and account for nearly half of the global road transport particulate emissions. The only way forward, therefore, is to focus on green manufacturing processes, as the industry jumps onto the electric bandwagon. In an interaction with Business Today’s Prerna Lidhoo, Kanwar opens up about his enhanced focus on sustainability, how de-risking worked for Apollo Tyres as a strategy, his belief in the ‘Make in India’ growth story and more. Edited excerpts:
Q: Electrification is set to be the next big disruption in the auto industry. Coming from an engine-agnostic business, do you worry about the future of mobility?
A: The entire journey of sustainability is very important to us. We aim to become a $5-billion company by 2026 keeping in mind EBITDA margins have to be higher than 15 per cent and return on capital employed (RoCE) is higher than 12 per cent. But we want to achieve that based on five key pillars: sustainability, digitisation of organisation, technology, brand and people.
Talking about sustainability, the manufacturing
