Maruti Suzuki India Archives - Indiandrives.com

September 28, 2012

Maruti Suzuki to export the Alto 800 to Africa And Latin America by December this year

Maruti Suzuki India Limited is said to be rolling out the highly anticipated vehicle of this year, the ‘Alto 800’ some where after October 2012’s second week.

It has been disclosed that the nation’s biggest passenger auto manufacturer has been functioning hard 24×7 to make recovery of the lost sales and income owing to the month long in-operation of its Manesar plant.

The yet-to-be introduced vehicle is likely to fire up the car sales for Maruti Suzuki India, which have been declining in an abundant manner because of the widespread market dimness and slowing up car sales in the Indian market.

In addition, the ever rising fuel rates and high vehicle finance costs have added to the majority of the Indian automobile companies’ miseries by keeping the domestic purchasers missing from their stores.

But, no other firm experiences the Indian passenger car market superior than Maruti Suzuki India limited that has over the years secured its distinguished and consumer favorable range amongst the Indian purchasers. The launching of Alto 800 small car before the festival period can be called as Maruti Suzuki India Limited’s present to the Indian car buffs for the lucky Diwali festivity.

As per reports, the Alto small car had been the company’s top selling vehicle in the country’s car market for 8 years running, until 2012 when Maruti Suzuki Swift hatch dismissed it off its peak place. The forthcoming car is likely to boast refined internal and external dimensions and contains the huge burden of filling-in the place of the company’s 800 model that stayed MSIL’s top selling product till the year 2004. In an ironic manner, it was Alto only that snatched up the ‘Best selling’ label from the hands of the renowned Maruti Suzuki 800 car.

Industry specialists think that MSIL will roll out the new Alto 800 in two different versions, with one being a petrol-run, whereas the other will come in double fuel petrol-CNG dress. The country’s festival phase has always been a top profit maker for the automobile companies running in the nation, particularly MSIL and the company is aiming to replicate its preceding feats with the forthcoming 2012 Alto 800.

As per sources, MSIL has made an investment of around Rs. 2.7 billion for the expansion and execution of the Alto 800 venture. In addition, the yet-to-be rolled out vehicle from the stables of the company will feature a fuel saving superior than the current generation Alto, by around 15 per cent, in addition to being obtainable at a lesser value label. Therefore, the CNG alternative accessibility could come in useful for enticing the domestic car purchasers towards the showrooms of Maruti.

Reportedly, MSIL has already crafted its growth plans in the other high prospective automobile markets, with the intention to swell its global footprint. The company is thought to mark its attendance in the entry-level small car markets of Latin American and African nations, by exporting its forthcoming 2012 Alto 800. Additionally, the company has registered sales of over 2 million vehicles of Alto and has exported approximately 2.75 lac units of Alto, accompanying its introduction in September 2000, in the country’s car market.

MSIL is expecting an excellent reaction from the Indian viewers towards the latest Alto 800 and believing its rich inheritance and custom, MSIL might just show why it is known as the undoubted winner of domestic automobile market.

May 1, 2012

Maruti Suzuki reports a decline of 3.04% in their profits of Q4 of FY 2011-2012

The compact car giant of India, Maruti Suzuki India, has reported a decline of 3.04 per cent in their revenue generation from sales for the fiscal year 2011-2012, which amounts to Rs.639.8 crore. The firm made a net profit in the very same period of the previous fiscal year of Rs 659.9 crore. The net sales of Maruti India has surged to about Rs.11,486.4crore in the fourth quarter in comparison to the Rs.9,796.7 crore in the previous fiscal year’s equivalent period. By the end of March 31, 2012 the firm made a net profit of 28.55 per cent that turned out to be Rs.1,631 crore opposite to the Rs.2,288.7 crore it made in the previous fiscal year. Evidently these figures show a very huge gap between the profit of 2011 and 2012 for sure.

Maruti Suzuki’s actual net sales were calculated to Rs.34,705.9crorefor the fiscal year of 2011-2012 in complete opposition of the Rs.35,849 crore of the fiscal year of 2010-2011. The firm had a proposal to give out 150 per cent for the year 2011-2012 that came to Rs.7 per share on a face value of Rs.5 each share. When the dividend in 2010-2011 was paid, it was the same too. In the final quarter of 2011-2012, the firm made a sales of nearly 3,60,334 units when compared to the 3,43,340 units of the same period in 2012-2011. This shows a growth in sales of 4.9 per cent. Maruti Suzuki India is contemplating to turn the tables around with the immediately launched MPV of Maruti Ertiga. The bookings of Maruti Ertiga have already passed the volume of 15,000 within seven days of its launch in the global market of automobile.

With other cars of Maruti Suzuki India in the Indian automobile market, the much anticipated Maruti Ertiga has made a very visible wave that has been ripping apart its competitors since it has been launched globally this month. For a while, the firm had a slowdown in its sales because of the majority of its models are petrol based in the current automobile market. The rising price of petrol has also made people opt for the diesel fuel based cars where Maruti Suzuki India does not have enough diesel fuel based car models to offer to the Indian customers who are very cost conscious when it comes to fuel price. Whatever cars Maruti Suzuki offers in diesel fuel variants, the customers are not very satisfied with that for they do not offer as much comfort and features the other car manufacturers give through there diesel cars.

For compact cars, till now only Tata Nano has givenMaruti Suzuki India a tough competition, but when it comes to stylish compact cars at an affordable rate then Maruti Suzuki India still rules the automobile market of India.

December 16, 2011

Maruti Suzuki India to Acquire Land for New Plant

Maruti Suzuki India, the biggest car manufacturing company of the country expects to complete land acquisition for a facility in Gujarat in a month; however a top company official said that they have no immediate plans for starting construction work there. Mr. R.C. Bhargava, Chairman at Maruti Suzuki India said that they will initiate work at Gujarat facility only when Manesar plant’s facility would be completely used. He also stated that land acquisition process is on and they hope it will be finished by the month of December 2011. They aren’t sure that they will be starting the work for quite a few years from now for at least 2 to 3 years. They will require the Gujarat’s facility only when Manesar plant is completely utilized, depending in the market situation.

At present, Maruti Suzuki India has two production plants at Manesar and Gurgaon, both in Haryana with combined capacity for producing 1.2 million cars in a year. As per the senior official of the government of Gujarat, the original land requirement of Maruti Suzuki India was designated to be 1000 acres. The carmaker had stated in the month of June 2011 that with its vendors, they would be investing Rs. 18,000 crores in Gujarat as it looks to develop and design almost 20 lakh cars in the state. Mr. Bhargava said that no one can produce capacity when market doesn’t need, but they produce capacity to market and make vehicles. So, if there is no demand for vehicles, they do not have to manufacture that capacity. Till November 2011, Maruti Suzuki India marketed around 6,81,200 cars down by 17 percent as compared to 2010.

December 2, 2011

Rising Import Costs might force Maruti Suzuki to increase prices

The till-date dominant carmaker of India, Maruti Suzuki, might just have to scale up the prices of its vehicles early in 2012, officials said this Thursday. The weakened Rupee has caused an escalation in the costs of imports, whereas there has been no change in the market demand in recent times, forcing the company to take this decision of price-hike.

The Indian market has seen a reduction in car sales following high increase in the interest rates, continuous rising fuel prices as well as a slowdown of the economy. This was a vastly different picture from the previous year when the auto sales rose by 30% making India the second-fastest growing auto market.

Maruti sales had slumped by 18.5% in November, compared to 2010’s same period figures, following labor strike at their Manesar plant. However, they had recorded better sales than October.

The Head, Marketing & Sales, Mayank Pareek, in an interaction with media said that the company had identified some stress points in the recent future, though they would continue to perform with competence in the Indian auto market over medium to longer terms.

Pareek also said that the joint-venture company, in which Suzuki of Japan held 54.2% stake, could raise the prices of their vehicles post December as the sharp decline of the Rupee in International trading had drastically affected their import costs.

Prices of the diesel variants of Maruti had already been raised in November. The Chairman of the Company, R.C. Bhargava said that the company faced double jeopardy because as the Rupee was decreasing, the Yen was getting stronger. This increased costs further for the Yen-dominated imports. In fact, the Yen, in just the previous year, has appreciated 28% against the Indian currency.

The Rupee experienced its worst fall in 16 years this November, falling 6.7% against the Dollar.

Bhargava expected the Manesar plant that had been recently hit by labour strikes, to be fully operational by January, producing 800 vehicles daily. It is to be noted that the recent strike had cost Maruti to lose out on 83,000 cars, cumulating to $500 million in output.

The RBI, having raised the rates of interest 13 times since 2010 for controlling inflation, has directly affected growth across all sectors.

With the slowdown of the Indian economy to its weakest growth in the last 2 years, along with Maruti Suzuki output being the slowest in the previous 3 years, the company had to face a lot of losses.

Sales figures of the Company are expected to experience a decline in the current financial year ending March, said Bhargava recently.

November 17, 2011

Maruti set to introduce 400+ driving schools

Maruti Suzuki India has always been a trend setter in its commitment towards road safety and education. The company recently unveiled its plans of doubling the driving schools operated by it to more than 400 within the coming 2-3 years. At present, the Company has a network comprising of six Institutes of Driving & Traffic Research (IDTR) with 192 driving schools for training people on the aspects of road safety. A number of state governments have supported Maruti Suzuki India in its initiative of setting up the IDTRs thereby institutionalizing training of drivers in India.

Maruti Suzuki India has already done a highly commendable job of training above 10 lakh people within the last 10 years. Out of the same more than 5 lakh people have received training under the flagship program of the country – National Road Safety Mission (NRSM) that was launched in December 2008.

A top official of Maruti Suzuki India said that the company had till date trained more than 10 lakh people. They had now targetted doubling their network of driving schools to touch 400 within the coming 2-3 years. He added that more than 160,000 lost their lives annually in road rashes. Since the automobile sector has been continuously growing in the country, it had become a very urgent necessity to start training institutes of high quality that would serve the purpose of institutionalizing quality training aimed at road safety.

October 1, 2011

Maruti Suzuki to Double Sales Network across India By 2015

Maruti Suzuki India, the largest automobile manufacturing company in India said that it aims to double the sales network across the nation by 2015 with focus on small cities and towns. Maruti Suzuki India on Thursday, proclaimed opening of the 1000th sales showroom for vehicles in Surat in Gujarat as part of its strategy for expanding into Tier III and Tier II metropolitans in India. Mr. Shinzo Nakanishi, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Maruti Suzuki Limited said that the network expansion is strategic to their business and they will continue to focus on it. Apart from the plan for increasing vehicle outlets, Maruti has also undertaken an initiative to upgrade the 3-year old showrooms under its project called Nav Nirman.

Maruti Suzuki India has introduced around 690 Swift vehicles from Manesar and Gurgaon plants today. The company also developed and designed approximately 60 A-Star and SX4 vehicles from Manesar facilities. At present, there are around 1500 people available for manufacture at Manesar facilities, which includes 1120 trailed and experienced technicians. Maruti Suzuki India, partial subsidiary of Suzuki Motor Corporation, Japan is the biggest automobile company of India offering full range of vehicles from entry level Maruti Alto and 800 to hatchback models such as Ritz, A-Star, Estillo, Swift and Wagon-R and sedans like DZire and SX4. It is a market leader in India and in the year 2007, Maruti Udyog Limited was renamed Maruti Suzuki India Limited.

September 22, 2011

Maruti might restart production of A-Star and SX4

Maruti Suzuki, India’s biggest car manufacturer, on Wednesday announced that they might restart manufacturing their A-Star and SX4 at its strike-hit Manesar plant while the ongoing tussle between workers and management still continues.

Maruti Suzuki announced that after seeing their Swift production exceeding its normal levels, they now do plan to restart A-Star and SX4’s production at their Manesar facility. They told they would be starting the production in one week.

Maruti today did dispatch around 625 units of Swift hatchbacks from Gurgaon and Manesar plants.

On average, the company does produce 1200 of Swifts, SX4 and A-Star daily from Manesar plant. The Manesar plant has about 2500 workers with 950 being regular employees.

At the moment, around 1100 workers are working at 2 Manesar facilities, and the company would still continue to up the workforce in Manesar facilities.

The ongoing feud between workers and management still continues without a definite resolution yet with the management failing to restart fresh talks between the workers and management.

Maruti had ordered around 350 trainees to restart working in 3 days after recent talks held through the intervention of Haryana State Government failed to yield a result.

As we know, the contract workers and management had been engaged in an altercation since 29th of August at the time when management didn’t allow workers to enter the factory surroundings until they agreed to sign the ‘good conduct bond.’ The agitation got worse when workers tried to deliberately sabotage components and prevented cars to effectively be dispatched to dealerships on time while the cars stayed back in the factory for repair of damages. There were reports that the workers even tried to loosen the doors of new cars, sabotaged wiring hence preventing shipment of these cars on time.

The contracted workers felt the management’s decision was based on pure revenge when they went on a strike for 13 days. The workers, however, had demanded a new union to be recognised called MSEU (Maruti Suzuki Employees Union) at Manesar.

On Sunday, the three workers’ representatives who were in detention were freed on bail.

Maruti Suzuki is already facing a huge crisis this festive season with improper production of its most wanted car, the Swift. Now the statement released by the company says they were indeed exceeding Swift’s production and now looking into re-starting production of A-Star and SX4. The ‘good conduct bond’ is by no means doing any good for the company when workers feel they’re being forced to sign an illegal bond and are opposing the moves made by the management.

Moreover, the intervention of the Haryana Govt has failed to yield a result between the workers and management, and the management hasn’t re-started talking to workers after that. Maruti also has plans to setup a new facility in Gujarat with Suzuki overseeing its proceeding with more than 50% stake in the company. Earlier this month, Suzuki’s CEO did visit Gujarat for a possible plant setup there.

August 29, 2011

Maruti Suzuki would be launching 20 models in the coming five years

People well known to Maruti Suzuki, India’s largest car manufacturer have told they are all set for a big product onslaught by planning to launch 15 to 20 new products in 5 years. With the idea of remaining competitive and protecting its market shares, Maruti Suzuki would continue its focus on low-cost products with about 70% to 80% of its upcoming models being small cars and that would include new variants and facelifts for existing cars.

Five of the new products that they are planning to launch are already being developed in the advanced stages. Maruti Suzuki was likely to launch Swift Dzire, sub-4 metre, at the Auto Expo 2012 in Delhi. This would be further followed by the multipurpose automobile based on R-III concept, Ritz backlift, A-Star facelift and a new generation of Alto 800 to be launched by 2013.

Maruti Suzuki would be investing Rs. 1000 to Rs. 1,500 crores on development of products to include their R&D unit in Rohtak in the next 3 to 5 years. The Rohtak unit would be fully operational in the initial 6 months of 2014. Industry experts iterated that a dedicated R&D unit would lower cost in development and would enable them to aggressively price the vehicles.

Experts felt since the product lifestyle was getting diminished, it was empirical that companies introduce fresher and newer products. They said that new products would certainly pull the customers and Maruti Suzuki was responding to that demand. Maruti Suzuki is currently working on their strategies for future product needs in its Japan headquarters.

I.V. Rao, Chief Executive of R&D, Maruti Suzuki, had declined to speak on the total number of products planned for release in the coming years. He told that Indian engineers’ contribution for development of these cars would be peaking up in the ensuing years. He told the engineers were involved in the development of both Indian and global products. He feels with the current dynamics in the Indian car market environment where competitiveness and expectations of customers changing continuously, they were in a better position and would have enough time to react in the coming years.

Furthermore, Suzuki plans to combine the Japanese R&D unit with India and plans to move forward where India would be playing a big role in development of products.

Rakesh Batra, Partner & National Director, Automotive, Ernst and Young, elaborated that the company’s biggest challenge would be to protect its market share. He told Maruti Suzuki would have to offer newer vehicles for comparable competition in a short timeframe. He told the Indian R&D unit, which is stronger with plenty of responsibility on its shoulders would definitely help.

August 12, 2011

Maruti Suzuki hiring more personnel for their R&D division

Maruti Suzuki India (MSI), India’s largest car manufacturer has had its turmoil in the last quarter. It has been very challenging for them by having to stop the premium hatch Swift, and they have had their internal problems at one of its plants as well. The small car market, which is a huge success in India is being eyed by global auto makers all this while. Maruti Suzuki is planning to become the hub of research activities for parent Suzuki, and it is reported that the company is also planning to increase its Research and Development Department by 20%, which means they would be hiring more than 1300 people in the year 2011-2012.

The company also plans to increase spending of the R&D Team by almost ten fold, and it is in the process of working on that to improve its capability in developing a complete model here in India. According to Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) in its annual report for 2010-2011 mentioned that manpower of the company’s R&D Team would be increased from 1070 to around 1300 in the financial year 2011-2012. Also, around 102 people were hired in 2010-2011 for Maruti Suzuki India’s R&D Division according to the report.

The report also says that in order to make Maruti as the R&D hub of SMC in Asia and outside Japan, they are developing its engineering skills to develop and design cars to delight the Indian consumers. Maruti Suzuki India is currently focussing on development and design of overall body changes and newer products and also would be developing new platforms to achieve this desired goal.

The company’s R&D Team have all the capabilities of working on minor changes and carrying out co-design with Suzuki Maruti Corporation (SMC) for all new models according to Maruti Suzuki India (MSI). To make full body changes indigenously, the company’s R&D Team is on its path for acquiring capability in order to do so. The company is also planning on developing new products on its own accord as part of its underlying future projects. Alternatives in fuel options would be considered for developing more products.

Maruti Suzuki India spent nearly Rs. 416 crores on Research and Development activities according to the report, which means it spent well over two folds higher than last year where they had spent Rs. 173 crores. The company is at present investing Rs. 2500 crores a plant for its K-series engine development and planning to set up a dedicated and in-depth Research and Development hub at Rohtak to consolidate its research capabilities. The CEO and Managing Director of Maruti Suzuki India, Shinzo Nakanishi told that Indian market certainly deserves more improved and localised Research and Development capabilities to serve India more closely.

He also told that we need to develop R&D capability in India along with their suppliers irregardless of working on future CNG technology, electric cars, or the launch of new variants or models. He also says that talks are in progress with the Government and other industry players about studying the feasibility of electric vehicles mobility in India. He also told that fuel efficiency would be enhanced when working on latest technologies, and they are also dealing with the policy and industry makers to set compulsory standards for fuel efficiency in the car industry.

August 6, 2011

Maruti Suzuki India Expects Single Digit Sales Growth this Fiscal

With passenger car sales declining since the past two months, the auto industry has witnessed the slowest growth period since as much as two years, following increased fuel and interest rates. Following the sluggish growth in the Indian auto industry, India’s largest car manufacturer, Maruti Suzuki India recently announced they expect their sales growth this fiscal year to be in the single digit.

Mayank Pareek, MSI’s managing executive officer of sales and marketing said that this time growth is quite low. In the festive season, however, they are expecting this growth to pick up. Although, due to their huge sales figure last year, in comparison this year’s sales will be quite less. They are expecting growth to be in a low single digit for this whole fiscal year.

The overall sales of the company decreased to 3,56,826 vehicles, a drop of 7.1% in the period of April to June, in comparison to the 3,84,181 vehicles sold in the corresponding period last year. The company’s domestic sales also decreased to 3,17,187, a drop of 4.7%, in comparison to the 3,33,001 vehicles it sold in the domestic market in the corresponding period last year. This was in contrast of the 24.81% total sales growth that the company had achieved in 2010-11 to reach 12,71,005 vehicles sales. In the last fiscal year, the domestic sales of the company increased to 11,32,739 vehicles, a growth of 30.08%.

Pareek also said that the company was offering a lot of discounts that is 22% higher that what they offered a year ago, as well as reaching out to existing customers for exchanging their old cars to increase sales. He also added that these customers also made a significant contribution, which was greater than that contributed by new buyers. They are also trying to attract new buyers, a plan that was affected because of the hike in interest rates.

Around 26% of their current customers already have home loans, so they won’t go for the exchange car initiative if the interest rates are hiked that can had a significant impact on their loan EMIs. He also stated that around 90,000 customers visit their service centres monthly, and the company was contacting them in a bid to get them to exchange their old cars in favour of new ones. He said that they were providing them with more offers.