Maruti Suzuki cuts production, increases discounts

Car-maker Maruti Suzuki India on Friday announced a cut in production of most of its models this month due to market slowdown.

“We have reduced production of all models except the Swift and the DZire. Alto production is already down 5 per cent from last month's 24,970 cars,” said Mr Mayank Pareek, Head (Marketing and Sales), Maruti Suzuki India.

High discounts

He said discounts were 22 per cent higher this year. The highest discount of Rs 35,000 was on the SX4, petrol version. “We are offering discounts in the range of Rs 18,000-20,000 on all variants of the Alto,” he added.

The company ruled out the launch of any small car below the Alto. It plans to invest Rs 1,000 crore on five stockyards and 15 brand centres across India over the next two years. The first stockyard is already commissioned in Bangalore and the next one will come up in Nagpur by first quarter of 2012.

New unit

The company said by October it would finalise the location for its new production facility, which could entail an investment of about Rs 6,000 crore. The production capacity of the plant can be anywhere between 750,000-10,00,000 units.

“Gujarat is one of the favoured destinations because of the advantage of the Mundra Port. This will enhance our competitiveness overseas,” the MSI Chairman, Mr R.C. Bhargava, said.

On the sales target, Mr Bhargava said, “The current slowdown is short-term and hopefully the festival season would trigger a rebound. The second quarter should not be as bad. However, we will not achieve double digit growth during the fiscal.”

COMMENT NOW