Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) today reported a 26 per cent decline in sales at 10,352 units during November 2012. It had sold 13,956 units in the same month last year, TKM said in a statement.
TKM, a joint venture between Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp and the Kirloskar Group, said sales growth fell due to the shutdown of a plant to ramp up annual production.
“The sales have dropped this month due to a plant shutdown to ramp up the annual production capacity from 2,10,000 units to 3,10,00 units for the next calendar year,” TKM Deputy Managing Director Marketing Sandeep Singh said in a statement.
The first plant manufacturing the Innova and Fortuner was shut down for a week and the second plant manufacturing Etios, Etios Liva and Camry was shut down for 15 days, he added.
“The market is yet to pick up pace. We hope to see growth next month due to the year-ending sales. The market is expected to grow in the first quarter of next year,” Singh said.
TKM’s Etios series registered a 48.8 per cent decline in sales during the month at 4,231 units compared to 8,271 units in November 2011.
Sales of the Innova stood at 4,682 units last month against 4,308 units in November last year, a growth of 9 per cent.
Sales of the Fortuner were at 1,025 units compared with 860 units in November last year, up 19 per cent.
Camry sales stood at 46 units in November, while that of the Corolla Altis stood at 362 units, TKM said.