As wedding bells ring across the country, Maruti Suzuki India is revving up the engines for what is expected to be a record month of sales.
After a record-breaking October in which the company recorded retail sales of 202,402 units – the highest of any October – Maruti is betting that the wedding season starting in November will keep the momentum going.
“We are told that a few ‘few lakhs’ weddings are planned across the country (in November). So, we are hopeful that this will also give us a good boost in terms of our retail sales,” Partho Banerjee, Senior Executive Officer of Marketing and Sales, told news agency PTI.
With the wedding season looking to be busy, Maruti is banking on these joyful celebrations to translate into car sales.
Banerjee noted that November could see an all-time high of about 11 or 12 wedding days. “We are hopeful that in November, with so many weddings taking place, the momentum will continue and we look forward to that,” he added.
The festive season has already provided the much-needed boost and Maruti Suzuki is optimistic about maintaining the 4-5% growth trajectory for the current fiscal. The company reported cumulative growth of 4% from April to October, with a whopping 22.4% growth in October alone. If this wedding season proves fruitful, Maruti could be on its way to a solid end to the year.
In the wake of robust sales in October, Maruti has also significantly reduced inventory levels by over 40,000 units. Their network inventory is now comfortably around a month, a far cry from the overcrowded lots of the past.
“We have corrected our network inventory by more than 40,000 units. We have calibrated our production inventories and now our network inventory is almost one month. We have managed to take the network inventory to 30 days,” explains Banerjee.
In terms of discounts, Maruti has taken a more personalized approach, allowing regional teams to determine pricing strategies based on local demand. “What we have done is we have made it very market specific. Now we don’t control it from the head office. We have given our field team the ability to answer the calls based on the market needs, as each market behaves in a different way. We must respect the customer’s point of view and we must actually act accordingly,” he said.
On possible price hikes in January, Banerjee hinted: “Our finance team is looking into that, but it is too early to comment.”
So as couples across India prepare for their weddings, Maruti Suzuki is keeping its fingers crossed that love will also translate into some impressive car sales.
With inputs from PTI
Published by:
Koustav Das
Published on:
November 5, 2024