Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd is devising a two-pronged strategy to strengthen its brands’ presence and also make inroads with its latest range of products this year.

The proposed strategy involves both urban and rural markets as the automobile firm expects strong growth this year, helped by a favourable monsoon and from sales of its new products launched a few months ago.

“We have a two-pronged strategy to achieve growth this year. Entrenching ourselves in upcountry rural India with our existing strong brands like Bolero and Scorpio we will be able to consolidate our rural India presence. Plus, we will make new inroads into rural India with brands like TUV 300 and KUV 100. In urban centres, we will further entrench ourselves with XUV500 and will use the latest portfolio of products to target new range of customers,” Veejay Nakra, Senior Vice-President, Sales & Customer Care, Automotive Division, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, told BusinessLine here.

He said Q1 of this fiscal started well given that the company would have the benefit of a full year of all the new products it launched last year.

“We can see the sentiments in rural India moving up in the right direction. Going forward, we clearly see positivity. But right now, there is a cautious positivity. Because the consumers/ farmers in rural India are to yet to realise the benefit of yield. Cash flow still is a concern. We hope second half will show strong growth,” he said.

During April-June 2016, the company’s utility vehicles sales grew by 13 per cent at 55,907 units when compared with 49,354 units in a year ago quarter.

Referring to uncertainties around diesel vehicles and impact on sales, Nakra pointed out that the industry was waiting for better clarity from the government. However, Mahindra responded quickly by coming out with sub-2 litre diesel engine and petrol engine options in its models.

“We have been working on our strong engine platforms – engine strategy rather. So far, we have petrol engine available only on KUV 100. Going forward, we will have it available in other products too. Also, in any of our power brands – be it Scorpio or XUV 500, we have 1.99 litre engine version available with equal amount of power,” said Nakra.

“In the current fiscal, M&M will be tweaking in displacement and fuel type for the existing models to overcome its diesel dependency, regulatory hurdles (ban on diesel vehicle with displacement>2000 cc) & higher applicable tax rates on buyers of higher displacement cars. Given the rural exposure is at 40 per cent, M&M is set to benefit from an economic revival post decent monsoon,” according to auto analysts of ICICI Securities.

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