 "Rural market driving Maruti Suzuki in UP")
The burgeoning rural market is driving the growth of India’s top carmaker Maruti Suzuki in Uttar Pradesh.
“We have clocked growth of about 14% in UP, largely on the back of our growth in the rural hinterland,” company’s vice president (dealer development and sales support) Partho Banerjee said here today.
He said Maruti had the widest point of sales and service network in UP, as elsewhere in India, which had helped the company sustain growth momentum.
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“There is a general slowdown in the domestic market, but we have largely managed to beat the downturn,” he underlined.
He said the company had gained a market share of 2.5% in India, which currently stood at over 40%.
Pan India, Maruti has 1,260 sales and 1,600 service points. The corresponding figures for UP are 78 and 100 respectively.
“Our customer retention and exchange programme has also helped in our growth story,” Banerjee said.
He was in town to launch Celerio hatchback in the UP market. The manual and auto gear shift variants of the car are priced between Rs 4.03 lakh and Rs 4.74 lakh (ex-showroom Lucknow) depending upon the model.
Celerio was unveiled at the ongoing Auto Expo 2014 in Greater Noida yesterday.
He further said the car was designed for easy drive and maneuverability with fuel efficiency of 23.1 km/litre. The new car would primarily take on Hyundai i10.
Meanwhile, he said the second-hand car market was growing in India and Maruti Suzuki was capitalising on the trend to retain and augment brand loyalty among customers.