Maruti eyes 20% increase in car sales this fiscal

Maruti Udyog Ltd (MUL) is expecting to increase sales of passenger cars by 20 per cent during the current fiscal. The company had, including exports of 32,240 cars, sold 3,62,242 vehicles in 2002-03.

MUL, for the nine months ending December 2003, had sold 3,28,019 cars, including exports of 35,040 cars - recording a jump of 30.3 per cent over the nine months ending December 2002.

Participating at the inauguration of the company's new state-of-the-art service outlet in Chennai, Jagdish Khattar, managing director, MUL, said, "Growth between 2000 and 2003 was flat. However, growth up to December 2003 was 27 per cent for Maruti. The average growth rate for the industry was around 24 per cent."

The new service outlet in Chennai, Maruti Service Master (MSM), is a joint venture between MUL and Sumitomo Corporation of Japan.

The service centre can handle around 100 cars per day, and is built at a cost of Rs.12 crore and spread over 6000 sq mt.

MSM was stared in New Delhi in August 1999 and is a workshop with ISO 9002 certification. The two companies jointly hold 98 per cent stake in the JV and the balance is held by Maruti Countrywide.

The new outlet is expected to strengthen Maruti's national service network, which includes 1,867 dealer workshop and authorised service centres, spread across 952 town and cities. This network is servicing over 17,000 cars a day.

Khattar added that the new service centre will not hurt its dealer network in Chennai, but will be a benchmark for them to follow suit.

"The closure of Unipro (company former dealer) in Chennai has left a vacuum of service demand for 5,000 cars in the city. This new service centre is also meant to fill that gap," he said.

Commenting on the performance of MUL's pre-owned car business, Maruti TrueValue, Khattar said, "In December 2003, over 1,400 cars were exchanged under the True Value brand."