Related biz to give Ashok Leyland a lift

In the last few years, company has been investing heavily in areas with high margins, related to its core biz

Commercial vehicle major Ashok Leyland, facing a tough market, has said diversification in related businesses — light  commercial vehicles, backhoe loaders and engineering — would help it in the long run. The company expects to become the leader in some of these sectors in the country and abroad.

V Sumantran, vice-chairman, Ashok Leyland, said: “While our focus will be on the core business, we added some bright adjacency businesses, then went to critical vertical integration with power trains and for future needs, entered into emission and other technologies related areas. It may look some pattern to the madness, but these are related to our business and if we master this, we will be the master and will be the best automobile company,” says Sumantran.

The company’s entry into the light commercial vehicles business — to which around Rs 2,500 crore has been committed — is along with Japanese auto major Nissan.

“It has been a good start.  In the first year itself, we have sold 35,000 units of Dost (the company’s mini pick-up truck) and now 50,000 units of Dost are on the roads.”

On Tuesday, Stile, a multi-purpose vehicle, was launched. Four more products, which will also be exported, are in the pipeline.

Its backhoe loader business came from its construction equipment joint venture with John Deere that attracted an investment of Rs 250 crore. Its  German subsidiary Albonair, in which the company has invested ^40 million,  works on reducing vehicle emissions, while Defiance Technologies is developing a small car with Nissan.