Staying away from the growing four-wheeler car tyre market on the ground the segment is witnessing intense competition, TVS Srichakra rolls out tyres for off the road vehicles, mainly for export market from its 11-million units per annum parent plant at Madurai, around 450 km from here.

Meanwhile, the company closed its first quarter of FY10 with a turnover and net profit of Rs.157.46 crore and Rs.6.84 crore respectively, as against Rs.136.23 crore and Rs.2.29 crore for the same period the year before.

While the raw material cost for first quarter has come down by Rs.7.54 crore as compared the previous year's first quarter, Vijayaraghavan said: 'Now the prices are on the rise as compared to the fourth quarter of FY09. Prices of natural and synthetic rubber have gone up by around 20 percent and 12 percent respectively.'