Ashok Leyland emerged a clear winner in the Medium and Heavy Commercial Vehicles (M&HCV) market during 2015-16 gaining better market share than its rivals.
During the year, the domestic M&HCV goods market registered an increase of 32 per cent in sales at 258,488 units (against 195,918 units in 2014-15), while passenger segment sales grew 19 per cent at 43,885 units (36,837 units). The Hinduja Group company, which is the second largest player in this segment, surpassed industry sales in goods and passenger categories with a growth of nearly 49 per cent in each.
Ashok Leyland’s market share in the truck segment increased to 31 per cent in FY16, up from 27 per cent in 2014-15. In the bus segment, the company regained its market leadership position, which it had lost to Tata Motors in the recent past. Its market share zoomed to about 45 per cent, up from 36 per cent.
Ashok Leyland’s market share gains come at a time when the M&HCV market is witnessing intensified competition after the entry of more players such as Daimler, Scania and Mahindra.
“We have gained market share in all regions including South, which accounts for about half of our volumes. There were three major factors that contributed to our turnaround and gain in market share — network expansion, new product introductions and realignment of sales and internal operations,” Gopal Mahadevan, Chief Financial Officer, Ashok Leyland, told Business Line.
It ramped up “total sales and service points to 1,275 from about 275, in the past 6-7 years, a move that helped improve after-sales support quality. Revamped product portfolio and filling up of gaps with new models incorporating international quality to match the global brands and realigned sales and internal processes to transform into a customer-centric organisation also helped in turnaround.
“While all players had the benefit of market recovery over the past couple of years, we were able to grow quite disruptively because we had not only strengthened network and product portfolio, but also became operationally more efficient,” Mahadevan added.
Source: HIndu Businessline
