The Hindu Business Line : Hind Motors confident of meeting target

Kolkata May 11 The management of Hindustan Motors (HM) expects that the company would be able to meet its production target of Ambassador cars for the current year despite work at the company's Uttarpara factory being suspended for a month. The company produces 13,000-15,000 Ambassadors annually.

"Fortunately, the suspension of work happened at the beginning of the year and we have 11 months to make up for the loss," Ms Soni Shrivastav, General Manager (Corporate Communications), CK Birla Group, told Business Line.

"In a way it was a blessing in disguise also, because most of the workers plan their annual leave at this time of the year."

HM declared `suspension of operations' at the Uttarpara factory on April 11 following stoppage of ingress and egress of materials by a section of the striking workforce.

The factory was reopened last Thursday following an agreement signed between the management and representatives of three trade unions.

Ms Shrivastav said that "full-steam production" of Ambassador cars will commence shortly.

However, the sale of cars in the current quarter will suffer as stocks with HM dealers have declined to near-zero level following the suspension at Uttarpara.

"For a month or two the impact (of the strike) will be visible on sales," Ms Shrivastav said.

"Now that the factory has resumed operations, we have to work out the quantum of loss," she added, without providing further details.

According to an official of Austin Distributors Ltd, a city-based HM dealer, the strike has affected sales of Ambassador cars in April.