Maruti Suzuki India, which came out with an automatic gear shift (AMT) hatchback— Celerio — early this year, will soon launch another small car with the AMT option. The new Alto K10 is expected to be rolled out in mid-November. In an interview with Business Line , Randhir Singh Kalsi, Executive Director-Sales and Marketing, spoke about more products in the pipeline and the company’s strategy going ahead. Edited excerpts:

You took over in this new role recently, after Mayank Pareek left the company. What is your agenda as the new sales and marketing head?

In a company of Maruti’s size, no agendas are driven by a single person. It is team work and continuity.

We have excellent teams in areas such as product planning, engineering and sub verticals like rural sales and marketing, and all of them work in tandem.

There is a consistency in the policies and in thought processes.

The first half of the fiscal has passed. What do you expect from the second half?

Everything is market-driven and depends on how competitors come out with new products in the second half.

All I can say is, we will grow more than the industry. That’s our intent and we are on track.

But the second half’s base is always high. Last year, there were a lot of new introductions in the second half. From that perspective, one has to see how many new models come out now and how the overall market behaves.

Positive sentiment was seen in the growth of the car industry, FMCG and commercial vehicles. But a full assessment will only be available by October-end. Last year, the festivals were in October.

This time round, part of our sales took place during Navratras in September. So, we will have to look at both September and October to assess our festival sales.

Why has sales growth of your entry-level cars slackened over the past few months?

We had applied the brakes on manufacturing the Alto K10 because the new model is coming. Our focus was to clear the existing lot. That was the reason. All our other models grew in numbers over the past six months.

How do you plan to market the new Alto K10? Especially as there is not much of price difference between Dzire and Ciaz…

Maruti has a portfolio of 16 different products. Therefore, at every stage, there is an overlapping of prices and, within that portfolio, cannibalisation also happens.

But finally, we leave the choice to the customer, as long as they stay in our larger portfolio.

For many, the Alto is also a second car, so they buy the Alto 800 and not K10.

About pricing the Ciaz, we have not done any profiling yet. It is too early. But we are getting a good response, as even a smaller dealer was able to sell six units in the first three days after the launch.

Demand for the diesel variant was higher than petrol, with a ratio of 60:40. We will know better about demand in the next few months.

With the market getting competitive with newer products, how do you plan to sustain your market share (around 45 per cent)?

Our focus will be on expanding our network in a big way. Not just in rural areas, we need to penetrate more in urban areas, too. Making products in every segment is another focus area. For example, there is a market of 29 per cent for compact SUVs which, so far, Maruti has not entered. So, we will be entering that segment.

Our R&D centre in Rohtak (Haryana) will support and supplement our mission of 2020 in terms of faster roll-out of products because our overall testing cycle (of vehicles) will reduce.

On the management side, it is being said that many senior Indians are not getting higher ranks compared with their Japanese peers...

I don’t think there is such a question. I have been working with the company for the past 30 years and there has always been team work among the Indians and the Japanese. At top level, there are five verticals, and each has a Japanese counterpart.

But there are not many who have made it to the managing director level…

We cannot generalise. RC Bhargava is still our Chairman and there is a pyramid structure.

Everybody cannot become the MD or Chairman. The filtration process always takes place as we move up the ranks. But decision-making is a collective process.

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