Cummins India Limited, a leading player in the domestic genset and diesel engine sector, is gearing upto beat the slow down in the industry with a two-pronged strategy _ aggressive marketing and product extensions in the higher and lower end segments to widen its market share.
The new marketing and product extension strategy is aimed at meeting the company's target of acheiving a 20 per cent sales growth per annum.
Singificantly, the company, which is a 51 per cent owned subsidiary of the $6 billion turnover Cummins Engine Company Inc. of USA, has decided to slow down its investment plans in India in view of the slow down in the industry. The new investments will be made only for products with long-term gestations, while all other investment plans will be deferred for the time being.
Cummins India chairman and managing director Ron Moore told Business Standard in the Power-Gen conference that the company has just introduced two series of gen drive engines in the upper and the lower end segments _ quantum series (above 1 MW) and B 1 series in the below 100 KV segment as part of the company's strategy to enter new industry segments to facilitate its future growth plans.
While the qantum series will take care of engines with capacities upto 2.5 MW, the company has tied up with Wartsila to produce gen drive engines above 2.5 MW capacities. 'Our aim is to become a one-stop show for supply of power generators with a wide range of capacities', Mr Moore said.
On the marketing front, the company is shifting its focus to direct marketing based on customised needs from its earlier route of marketing through the OEM (Original equipment manufacturers) route. According to D V Vadgama, general manager marketing (Power Gen) of Cummins India, the company has adopted a new marketing mantra _ 'walk in the shoes of our customers' which is aimed at creating a better value package with comparitive advantage.
Such a marketing strategy is expected to help the company to gel well with its customers, which, in turn, will give a boost to its brand image and sales volumes, Vadgama added. Besides its own direct interactions with the vast list of clientales, Cummins has recently appointed two research agencies to do a market survey for the company to improve its product categories and customer services.
