Technology, reach and young team are going to be the driving force for Ashok Leyland’s Light Commercial Vehicle (LCV) business, according to Nitin Seth, who recently took over as the new executive director for LCV.
The 44-year-old will work closely with the Ashok Leyland-Nissan joint venture to launch a new range of LCVs in the market. Both the partners have said two more vehicles will be introduced before 2013 and would invest Rs 1,150 crore as part of phase-I investment.
‘Ashok Leyland – DOST’, the first vehicle to be launched by the JV was rolled out on March 29. Two more products are set to be launched before 2013. The second product will be from Nissan in 2012. The product will be rolled out from Nissan’s Oragdam facility, near Chennai, while the first and the third were to be from Ashok Leyland’s Hosur facility.
“The name Dost (friend), for the vehicle was my idea, and this is how our product and the team will be with the customers. The new platform is also a friendly one, so we named the product Dost,” Seth says.
Quality, pricing and brand building are going to be the focus areas with the help of technology, reach (distribution) and young team, he added. He noted, that the average age of people in his team would be 30-32.
Seth has over 11 years of experience in the automotive industry, in sales and marketing. Earlier, he has served as head of sales and marketing for cars like Tata’s Indica, Indigo and Nano. He was one of the key members during the launch of the passenger car business of Tata Motors in 1999. During his tenure at Tata Motors, he sold more than 1.5 million units of cars in 10 years. He also has experience in stitching together new joint ventures, as he was instrumental in functioning of the Tata-Fiat JV.
“This will be a new challenge. Till now, I was in the passenger segment. I am now getting into commercial vehicles and it is a new business being set up from the scratch. Starting from dealers and people, everything has to be set up. It is an interesting challenge,” said Seth.
He will operate under the direction of V Sumantran, executive vice-chairman, Hinduja Automotive, who has been spearheading the group’s growth in the LCV segment.
