Birla Tyres plans management revamp after losses

Kesoram Industries Ltd, the flagship arm of the Basant Kumar Birla group, is going in for a management revamp of its tyres division Birla Tyres, Manjushree Khaitan, director of Kesoram and B K Birla's daughter, said on Tuesday.

''We are changing the current management structure of Birla Tyres. This is being done to improve profitability. The process has already started and we are now looking at appointing a chief executive officer, for which a head-hunt has begun. A whole organisational chart is being worked out,'' Khaitan told reporters in Kolkata after the company's annual general meeting.

Kesoram recently appointed consultancy firm McKinsey to give an overall strategic vision for the sustained growth of Kesoram after a massive setback in fiscal 2010-11. It reported a net loss of Rs210.21 crore in 2010-11 against a profit of Rs237.34 core in the previous year.

Deepak Tandon, a whole-time director of the company who recently resigned, was looking after Kesoram's tyre division. Following Tandon's departure, K C Jain was appointed in April as whole-time director in charge of Kesoram's cement plants.

While the tyre division's margins came under pressure due to high rubber prices, cement operations faced depression due to overcapacity in the industry.

''The company is hopeful of rebounding this year as it is in the process of putting in a recovery plan in place which includes among other things a strong management team for the tyre division, higher capacity utilisation, a more aggressive marketing policy and a change in the product mix towards high margin passenger car and two-wheeler tyres,'' Khaitan said.