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Tamarind growers from Tamil Nadu, orange growers from Nagpur and nuts and bolts makers from Sonepat are among the new target customer segments of the country’s largest carmaker, Maruti Suzuki.
With most domestic carmakers struggling to make both ends meet amid the recession, Maruti has identified over 300 such segments to push sales.
“Every drop counts, adding up to bigger sales,” the company’s COO, Marketing and Sales, Mayank Pareek, told Business Line .
He pointed out that the carmaker has telescoped from the mass market segment to niche segments to drive growth in an industry that has been seeing declining sales for a while now. But Pareek added he is not unduly worried about the slowdown. “I think it is a short-term solution. In the medium- to long-term, we are hopeful the recession will go away because there is a huge under-penetrated market which still exists in the country,” he said.
The recessionary period has been a huge opportunity for the company to come out with innovative solutions to grow sales, he said. For example, it focused more on rural markets, which is now paying dividends. According to Pareek, more than one-third of total sales now come from that segment.
With Ertiga, a ‘life utility’ vehicle, the company tapped into the Indian preference for a car that looks small but offers vast interior space.
Yet another initiative has been to seek feedback from employees on ways to reduce costs. A total of 4 lakh suggestions came through. The implementation saved the company as much as Rs 350 crore.
Some of the suggestions included an automated car wash system in workshops and the use of tablets by service professionals while taking service orders.
To transport kits from ports to its facilities, Maruti has opted for rail in the place of road. The company now sources over 85 per cent of parts by value from within a 100-km radius of its facilities. Between April and November this fiscal, Maruti Suzuki sold a total of 6,68,480 car units in the domestic market, up 1.3 per cent from the corresponding period in the previous year.
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