Volvo Buses India Private Limited (VBIPL), the wholly owned Indian subsidiary of Swedish bus major, Volvo Bus Corporation, today announced that it has bagged its single largest order of 100 multiaxle buses from Hubli-based VRL Logistics Limited. VRL has been the customer of Volvo since 2003.
Announcing this at a press conference, Akash Passey, managing director, VBIPL said, “This order which comes in tandem with Volvo Buses future expansion announcement flag bears the confidence that the customers today repose in Volvo and the Indian bus market.”
Before this order VRL commenced its partnership with Volvo in 2003 when they acquired 10 Volvo inter-city coaches. Since then they grew to build a fleet of about 48 buses.
Presently, VRL is the largest operator of commercial vehicles in India with a fleet of 2,800 vehicles. It has 250 buses in its fleet. “During the next one year, we will add 550 commercial vehicles including 250 buses,” Vijay Sankeshwar, chairman, VRL Logistics said. Today, he took the possession of the first of the 100 buses. The deliveries will complete over the next 7 months, Passey said.
He said the current order for 100 multi-axle buses is worth Rs 90 crore.
The Volvo 9400XL multi-axle bus was awarded the commercial vehicle technology award in 2009 by CV magazine.
Passey said, “Volvo’s strategy to continuously re-invent and improve its products and features was kept alive in 2010 by bringing in the CNG bus, introducing Euro IV regulations in its new facelift Euro IV city bus and the step to Volvo Bus Centers across key cities, to provide a higher level of service and experience for our customers and their drivers. Volvo is focused in offering the entire gamut of support services along with the product and is the first company to be singularly focused on only one business — buses.”
Volvo Buses expects a growth of 15-20 per cent overall and the soft services to give 50 per cent of the revenue in 2013-14. Its revenues for the year 2010 are expected to be in the range of Rs 550 crore, he said.
Market share
Volvo today has over 75 per cent market share in the luxury inter-city AC coach segment and over 50 per cent market share in the AC Diesel Low Floor City buses, which are present across 12 cities in the country. Last week Volvo City Buses entered its 12th city - Mumbai. Currently, there are about 3,500 Volvo buses operating in India, both in the city and inter-city segments.
“The company is bullish on our growth in 2011 as the industry is buoyant about the future of the bus market in total and is stating a healthy growth level from 5-10 per cent for the coming years,” Passey added.
