Vredestein

The Dutch company, which is part of the Indian Apollo Tyres Ltd. is a traditional manufacturer of high quality summer and winter tyres. Vredestein tyres have earned a reputation in Europe and North America for reliable tyres with high quality handling characteristics.

About the company

Apollo Vredestein is a company owned by Apollo Tyres, which is a multinational company that owns manufacturing plants in India, South Africa and the Netherlands. Apollo Tyres is a young, highly ambitious and forward-looking company that has expanded its reach into Europe with the purchase of Vredestein. With the purchase of Vredestein, it has bought a traditional European brand that is now growing again thanks to the newly invested funds. The quality of Vredestein tyres is also demonstrated by the fact that a large number of them are designed by the world-famous Italian design studio Giugiaro. Today, Vredestein's plants employ over 2,000 people.

History

On 6 November 1908, Emil Schiff became the owner of the rubber company Nederlandse Guttapercha Maatschappij, which had its plants in the city of Delft. A year later Emil Schiff moved the company to Loosduinen and renamed it Rubberfabriek Vredestein. The company was originally involved in the manufacture of rubber products, such as heels, floor coverings and rubber shoes. In 1934, there was a major fire at the Loosduinen factory and, in the immediate restructuring that followed, a bicycle tyre factory was established in Doetinchem. In 1946, in cooperation with the American company B.F. Goodrich, a new NV Nederlandsch-Amerikaansche Autobanden-fabriek Vredestein factory was established in Enschede. The company's growth accelerated in 1962 after the merger with N. V. Rubberfabrieken Hevea. In the 1970s, the company had to deal with the oil crisis, which was followed by the division of the company's shares between Goodrich and the Netherlands. Both Goodrich and the Netherlands owned 49% of the shares, with the remaining 2% owned by the Vredestein Foundation. At this time, the company was forced to focus mainly on passenger car tyres and industrial machinery. At the beginning of the 1990s, a very necessary restructuring of the company took place. The Dutch government found three investors for the company and a new long-term plan was drawn up for product development and production, financial strategy and sales distribution. Part of the restructuring included a collaboration with the famous Italian designer Giorgetto Giugiaro. These administrative interventions proved to be very successful and Vredestein achieved significant growth and re-entered the elite group of tyre manufacturers. In 2009, Vredestein was acquired by Apollo Tyres of India and the companies served began operating under the name Apollo Vredestein BV. Most of the production lines are still located in Enschede and the company is growing rapidly thanks to investments and increasing its employee numbers in the Netherlands.

Operations

Recently, Apollo Vredestein has been trying to involve Dutch universities as much as possible in its research activities. With the help of its own technical innovations and the collaboration with Giorgetto Giugiaro, Vredestein is trying to break into the rubber elite.