India’s Apollo Tyres will operate a global marketing structure from 1 January, headed by chief marketing officer Marc Luyten, who was director, marketing & aales at Apollo Vredestein B V, in Enschede, the Netherlands.
Luyten “will spearhead the global marketing efforts of Apollo’s key product brands”, the tyremaker said in a statement. He will be assisted by a team of product brand managers responsible for individual brands world-wide.
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The new global marketing structure was established folowing the integration of Apollo Tyres India and two acquired units of Dunlop Tyres in South Africa in 2006, and Vredestein Banden in May 2009.
Both companies have since undergone a name change and have been registered as Apollo Tyres South Africa and Apollo Vredestein, respectively.
“The acquisitions resulted in a portfolio of strong product brands in the Apollo stable which command a high demand in regions of the world, outside their home markets,” the firm said. “The team under Marc Luyten will be focusing on enhancing each product brand’s position across the globe, both with automobile manufacturers and in the replacement market.”
Apollo managing director Neeraj Kanwar said: “In a rapidly growing organisation like ours, Marc Luyten and his team will be bringing in the much-needed synergy across locations, and adding enormous value by building each of these product brands with their distinctive value proposition.”
Apollos said Luyten had boosted Vredestein’s profile, positioning it as an aspirational brand and establishing a network of sales subsidiaries across Europe and North America.
Luyten will now be based in Brussels and report directly to Kanwar.
He said: “Moving into a true global company now brings all of us around the world phenomenal opportunities.”
A separate team, at company headquarters in Gurgaon, India, also reporting to Kanwar, will oversee all corporate image and brand-building initiatives for Apollo Tyres.
