At 29, Ashish Chordia loves luxury and the big life. Priyanka Joshi finds out more about his fascination with Porsches and Ducatis.
As the taxi approaches the Porsche showroom in south Mumbai, I question my logic of posing as a potential customer. The showroom, reportedly built at an investment of $2 million, looks completely state-of-the-art and I am getting a panic attack at the thought of having to appear knowledgeble (and moneyed) to the staff and having to fend off, perhaps, a pushy marketing type. My fears are unfounded though. The executives who greet me don’t seem eager at all to secure their commissions. It’s a relief.
Later, when I meet Ashish Chordia, CEO of Precision Cars (India), importer of Porsche and other brands, I relate my experience to him and find him visibly delighted. Proud of his showroom (and of his “colleagues”), he tells me that the staff has been consciously trained to “converse freely with customers”, without intimidating them with technical details. Consumers like me, he says, who would prefer to just browse or sit quietly in the lounge reading instead of immediately sealing a deal are encouraged. This is done to “exceed customer expectations”, he says. “My clients won’t come back otherwise.”
Chordia is reluctant to share the names of his clients but they include actors like Bipasha Basu and Akshay Kumar, sportsmen and business tycoons. After having sold an impressive 800 cars this year (prices start from Rs 53 lakh for a Porsche and go up to a whopping Rs 1.5 crore plus), Chordia is convinced that he can sell around 4,000 in 2009 — without offering any discounts or frills. “We will deliver better numbers, at the right price.” The financial crisis can be beaten, he says.
Chordia is a man of few words. His answers are precise but he assures me that when it comes to interacting with his “colleagues” he is never short of words. Turn the topic around to superbikes and you discover another side to him. Chordia reveals that he is infatuated with sports bikes. “This was also why I launched Ducati bikes in India,” he smiles. A little prodding and he reveals that he owns “a few luxury wheels and four Ducatis.”
Having realised that I am itching to interject with another question about his cars, he says “go on”, a little indulgently, and I happily comply: How does he like his Porsche? “I always wanted a white Porsche with red leather interiors,” he says and adds that he got his customised in his workshop — his initials have been embossed on the car’s body. You can do that? I ask in wonder? “Yes, when one is buying luxury, like a Porsche car, he is allowed to get it customfitted and styled.”
He lists some customisation requests from his customers: “Once, we had a buyer who brought in a bottle of nail polish so that we could re-colour the Porsche in the same shade,” he says. Embossing the owner’s names (it can also be done in precious metal letters) on the car is a common whim too.
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Chordia credits his background for making it easy for him to start out in the luxury business (he comes from a family with interests in real estate and gems exports). The 29-year-old who obtained his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Southern California just three years ago is now keen to cover the entire spectrum of luxury retail. Already, his multi-brand retail outlet for luxury brands, Thanks, retails as many as 22 brands, including Porsche, Pershing and Capellini furniture, clothes and shoe brands like Chloe, Fendi, and D&G. Unable to recall all the labels he sells, he cautions, “I haven’t arrived as yet.”
We’re sure he’ll do that soon.