'We want to offer the best to India'

With the launch of the Fabia hatchback on Wednesday, Skoda India has assured itself of bringing in the much-awaited volumes in its Indian account.

Although the car is priced much above its competitors (Rs 4.99-7.88 lakh) such as Maruti Swift, Hyundai Getz and Chevrolet U-VA, the company is confident of generating sizeable volumes through the model.

Fred Kappler, head (sales and marketing), Skoda Auto, spoke to Swaraj Baggonkar about the company's plans in India.

What has taken Skoda so long to launch a small car in India even though the model was available internationally three years ago?

We wanted to offer India the best we had. We were waiting for the new Fabia to be formally launched (internationally) and get the same here. We will also keep up with this tradition of introducing the latest models in India.

Why has there been a change in the approach towards India?

We learnt that there was no potential for growth with just three models (Laura, Superb and Octavia). It is undoubtedly the best time to be here with the sales of virtually every segment going up. We will look to cater to the market with the best of our models.

What Skoda models will we see here in the future?

We are conducting a market study to find out if there is enough potential for two models. Moving forward, we may produce the Roomster (multi-purpose vehicle) and the Yeti (sports utility vehicle) at our facility in Aurangabad by 2010.

How will you manage to accomodate the models of Volkawagen and Audi at Aurangabad?

We are currently the producing seven models at the facility there - Audi A6, VW Passat, Fabia, Octavia, Octavia Combi, Superb and Laura. We are doubling the capacity to 30,000 units a year to accomodate these models.

We will need to raise the capacity beyond this in the near future if the Fabia is a success or other models of Audi and VW were to be produced here. This will not entail huge investments as we have procured the desired land.

Will we see an integration of production facilities of the three companies?

Yes, the production lines of all the three companies will become common, which means any model could be produced from any of the units. We may use VW's or Audi's facility or VW may use ours or Audi's facility for production.

This will allow us to contain costs as the supplier base will remain common and very near to the production.

With the presence of a small car now in your portfolio, will the existing dealer base be able to support your operations?

No, we are expanding our dealer base to 100 outlets in the next three-four years from 50 at present.

How many sales are you targetting for the Fabia? Can we safely put the figure at 3,500-4,000 units a year?

We saw an unprecedented demand for the car when we started the bookings. We have already booked a few thousand and this may have an impact on initial numbers. We will be very happy if we could sell 3,500-4,000 units a year but that would be on the higher side.