GRI sets out ambitious plans for agricultural tire market

Colombo – Sri Lankan tire manufacturer Global Rubber Industries (GRI) is working to an ambitious medium-term growth plan, Prabhash Subasinghe, founder and MD said at a recent media event in Colombo.

The strategy is focused particularly on European, American and certain markets in Asia Pacific and the Middle East, Subasinghe told ERJ in an interview during the 8 Feb meeting.

Leveraging the company’s relatively new agricultural tire production operations, GRI aims to “triple” sales within the next three years, said its leader – without providing figures. 

“For that, the infrastructure is already set, and we have the pipeline to increase our utilisation because of the way we have built our factories [in Badalgama, near Colombo],” Subasinghe explained.

Having started up as a manufacturer of solid tires in 2002, GRI established a pneumatic off-highway tires plant next to the Badalgama solid tire operation in 2018.

GRI is mid-way through a $100-million expansion project, which will increase production capacity for agricultural and off-road tires to 100 tonnes/day by 2026.

The ramp-up in agricultural tire production – from a current capacity of 60 tonnes/day – is in response to growing demand, said Subasinghe.

According to the company founder & leader, this is especially the case in Europe, which accounts for 50% of GRI’s agricultural tires sales.

Another 30% of GRI’s pneumatic tires are sold in North America, with the remainder going to ‘rest of the world’ markets.

“We keep investing and continuing to build our capacities and capabilities to offer a commanding portfolio of products,” Subasinghe commented.

To deliver its ambitious goals, GRI aims to leverage its existing supply-footprint, including in Europe, where it employs nearly 100 people across nine legal entities.

The business model is designed to enable GRI to conduct business on a B2B basis as well as a B2C basis, the company leader added.

According to Subasinghe, GRI’s solid tire business is a “tier 1 product”, being supplied to major OEMs, such as Kion Group and Caterpillar to name a few.

“So, we have had a great platform in Europe… and have been able to use that to pivot into this new speciality tire business,” continued Subasinghe.

“In certain key markets, like in France, Spain, Germany and eastern Europe, we already have our companies that are based there and do our own distribution,” he said.

In other markets, GRI is working with large distributors to take its products into the market.

Regarding future plans, Subasinghe said GRI would at some point look into building a tire manufacturing facility outside of Sri Lanka.

But, concluded the company leader, the focus for now is on the expansion of production in Sri Lanka.