Mahindra Automotive North America (MANA), Mahindra & Mahindra’s North American unit, has cut its workforce, job roles it described as ‘redundant’, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.

“MANA has combined some of the job roles and has taken the most difficult decision to reduce the resultant redundant job roles,” said Mahindra’s official spokesperson’s statement on Wednesday.

Legal battle with Fiat

This comes after MANA chose not to bid for the USPS Next Generation Delivery Vehicle program, while some of its non-core work have also been deprioritised, it stated. In another setback, MANA lost the legal battle with FIAT to sell its off-road vehicle Roxor in the US. The US International Trade Commission has ruled that Mahindra’s Roxor resembles a Jeep CJ made by Fiat Chrysler.

MANA has been evaluating options for making the organisation leaner and optimising performance and productivity, it said. It’s these factors that led the company to combine some job roles, and reduce the resultant redundant job roles, it explained.

The Mahindra Group will stay firm on implementing capital allocation norms, with a sharp focus on financial returns, driving growth, and continued improvement in international subsidiaries, the statement said.

The Detroit centre will continue the future-ready work on its new ‘Born Electric’ platforms, and is preparing for the launch of the New Roxor 2021, for which we continue to retain as well as bring in new and relevant skilled talent, the company said.

“Mahindra remains wholly committed to the US market and to building a portfolio of tough and durable commercial vehicles to meet the needs of a rapidly evolving economy,” it claimed.

In a press briefing on January 1, the Mumbai-based automaker had emphasised on its strategy of capital allocation. “The narrative that we have been talking about in the last nine months is capital allocation. In today’s world, we have to be very agile, and look at various different collaborations. The critical part also for us is to look at profitable growth, and that’s where the capital allocation policy has come into play. We are effectively going back to the fiscal discipline that we had for a very long time,” Anish Shah, Deputy Managing Director & Group CFO, M&M, had said.

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