JLR to double sales outlet in India

Tata group firm Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) will more than double its dealerships in India within this fiscal to increase sales as part of the British marque's plan to focus more on emerging markets.

JLR, which currently has three dealerships at two cities in India, will add four more outlets in 2010-11.

"JLR already has three showrooms in India -- one in Mumbai and two in New Delhi. In the course of the year, it will open showrooms in Hyderabad, Ludhiana, Chennai and Bangalore," a JLR spokesperson said.

JLR believes that India is a high potential market, the official added.

The company sells the entire range of JLR products in India such as XF, XKR and XJ from Jaguar, and Range Rover and Discover from Land Rover's portfolio.

The Tata Motors-run firm had sold 242 units in 2009-10. The company pushed most of the volumes from its flagship store in Mumbai since its opening in June 2009. The Delhi showrooms were opened in March this year.

The spokesperson, however, declined to give any sales target for this fiscal saying the company "does not make volume planning assumptions public".

After the downturn hit major global auto markets such as the US and Europe in 2008-09, vehicle manufacturers have been focusing more on emerging markets, including India and China.

"For the early part of the financial year (2009-10), many of the markets in which JLR operates experienced negative GDP growth... Strong growth continues in many emerging markets especially China, India and South America," Tata Motors had recently said in its Business Review presentation. Tata Motors had said JLR would build it competitiveness by focusing on emerging markets and environmental technologies.

India was the second fastest growing auto market that had witnessed over 26 per cent jump in 2009-10. China's auto market was the fastest growing with total sales reportedly registering 46 per cent rise from the previous year.

In fact, last year China sold a total of 13.6 million units against 10.4 million vehicles sold in the US, thus becoming the biggest automobile market of the world.

Last week, the spokesperson had said JLR would set up a national sales company in China to accelerate its expansion in the world's fastest growing car market.

Besides, JLR also plans to increase its sourcing from low-cost countries, including China and India, in coming years to reduce input costs. To facilitate the sourcing, the company had opened purchasing offices in India and China in 2009.

In September 2009, JLR had announced a decade-long new business strategy that would see 800 million pounds investment going for developing eco-friendly products.