Leading automobile designer Dilip Chhabria's firm DC Design is scouting for partners to start dealerships here in Ahmedabad and Surat.
The Ahmedabad market already has some local players offering customisation on existing car models.However, the industry here is mostly unorganised, and the entry of an organised player is likely to spruce up demand.
'DC Lounge', as the outlets are called offer services of transforming regular cars into premium designer vehicles according to the customer's requirements. The company already has a portfolio of 22 standard product offerings including the Toyota Innova, Mahindra XUV 500, Volvo coaches etc. These are value added versions of these already existing popular vehicles available in the market.
DC Lounges would sell these models to customers, apart from offering customisation services. "We have six dealerships operational across the country, and we are now looking at adding new dealerships in the next three months", Chhabria said. At present, DC Design operates dealerships in Mumbai, Pune, Gurgaon, Delhi, Hyderabad and Chennai.
It is looking at entering new cities like Ahmedabad, Surat, Jaipur, Nagpur, Kolhapur, Bangalore, Cochin, Kolkata, Lucknow, Ludhiana, Chandigarh, Noida, apart from expanding in cities like Pune, Mumbai (South) and Navi Mumbai through the franchise route. Investment per outlet is estimated to be around Rs 2.5 crore.
Working on expanding its national footprint, the company is eying a 45% growth during the current fiscal. Chhabria did not wish to give out revenue figures though.
The customised Innova is the company's largest selling model in terms of volume, while the Volvo coaches contribute the most in terms of value, Chhabria said. He added that large part of the business does not come from car customisation offerings, but from the sales of these standard value added models.
