A tenth of Maruti sales now from Nexa outlets

Firm has 100 Nexa outlets covering 60 cities, to be expanded to 150 by end-March and to 250 in FY17

Riding on demand for its new Baleno brand, Maruti Suzuki, the country's largest car maker, is seeing a tenth of sales volume coming from Nexa, the company's 'premium' sales channel that became operational in July last year. A total of 45,000 units -- 17,000 of the S Cross and 28,000 of the Baleno -- have been sold exclusively through Nexa outlets.

The company has close to 100 Nexa outlets, to be expanded to 150 by end-March and to 250 in FY17. Nexa covers 60 cities.

"This is the fastest retail network set up by any automobile company globally. By 2020, when Maruti is aiming to sell two million vehicles a year, Nexa might contribute 15 per cent," said R S Kalsi, executive director (sales and marketing).

 

The Baleno was launched in October and is a little over 60 per cent of Nexa volumes. S Cross, debuting in August, has struggled to report large volumes. The top-end variant, with a 1.6-litre engine, has not picked up after being launched at a premium of Rs 300,000 to the variant with the 1.3-litre engine. The S Cross only has diesel variants. The company has consciously decided to bring down the price gap to Rs 150,000. "There was a disconnect between customer perception about the 1.3-liter engine and the 1.6-litre engine, which is imported and therefore costlier," said Kalsi.

The S Cross, the first Nexa product, was launched at Rs 8.34 lakh to Rs 13.74 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi). The price of the 1.6-litre vehicle was initially in the range of Rs 11.99 lakh to Rs 13.74 lakh, while the 1.3-litre variant was priced between Rs 834,000 and Rs 10.75 lakh. A little over 80 per cent of the S Cross demand is for the 1.3-litre variant. On the Baleno, the company is looking at ways of expanding production to bring down the waiting period, currently up to six months.

Kalsi also said Suzuki, parent company of Maruti, would launch 20 products over the next five years, of which 15 were likely to be sold in India. Maruti has the widest passenger vehicle portfolio among Indian manufacturers, with 15 models. "We will segregate and see which models can be sold through regular channels and which should go to Nexa," he said. The regular sales outlet, 1,700 in number, will be expanded to 2,500 by 2020, for the goal of annual sales reaching two million units.