Mahindra First Choice Services Ltd, a multi-brand car workshop company from the Mahindra Group, has chalked out an aggressive expansion plan to grow its service network across the country. The company has planned to invest Rs 250 crore to open 50 multi-brand car service outlets on its own over the next five years. It plans to open another 450 outlets through a franchisee network.
“We have planned to open 500 outlets to service cars of different brands. Of this, the company will open 50 outlets and 450 outlets through the franchisee network, wherein each franchisee would be investing Rs 1 crore per outlet. Our aim is to achieve a turnover of Rs 1,000 crore in the next five years,” YVS Vijay Kumar, chief executive officer, Mahindra First Choice Services Ltd told Business Standard.
He said the company has so far invested close to Rs 60 crore to set up 16 service outlets in the cities of Mumbai, Pune, Nashik, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore. Going forward this year, it plans to open multi-brand service outlets in Coimbatore, Kochi, Faridabad, Gurgaon and Noida and also expand network in Bangalore, Chennai.
Each service outlet will be provided with a support infrastructure like spare part warehouse, training to franchisees and technicians among others.
Currently, the automobile service market is estimated at Rs 12,000 crore and largely dominated by the unorganized sector. While the OEMs through their dealerships command about 45% of the market, the remaining market is spread among the roadside service stations. Mahindra First Choice is looking at grabbing a sizeable portion of this unorganized market, Rajeev Dubey, president, group HR, corporate services and after market and member of the board, Mahindra & Mahindra said.
Together with multi-brand workshops and multi-brand used car sales network–Mahindra Wheels, the company plans to open 1,000 outlets in the next five years, he said.
He said Mahindra Wheels, the used car sales network of Mahindra would be selling 46,000 used cars by March 2013, a growth of 35% over the previous year. It is targeting a similar 35% growth during the next financial year. Currently, the company has opened 223 sales outlets across the country. The combined revenues of used car sales and used car servicing would be in the range of Rs 5,000 crore in the next five years, he said.
The company is also developing a online sales platform to buy and sell used cars, which will be launched in a couple of months, he added.