M&M to focus on rural markets to boost sales

Utility vehicle maker Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) Ltd is planning to drive on rural markets to push its latest pick up Mahindra Bolero Maxi Truck.

M&M vice-president (automotive sales) said the company plans a deeper reach in the rural markets to improve its sales.

"We are the market leader in the pick up category with 85 per cent of the market share and our 80 per cent of the revenue in this segment comes from rural markets.

"We want to strengthen our rural presence to enhance our revenue portfolio. We are increasing our dealers from existing 450 to 600 by the end of this fiscal," he said.

The company is also focusing on providing better after sales services.

"We are working out a plan to increase our touch points. We want to be present every 50 kms. For this, we are planning to use the existing vast network of Mahindra Group companies, besides launching new touch points," he said.

The company, in the last fiscal, sold 47,500 units. It grew at 5 per cent in the pick up category, a per cent more than the industry's growth rate of 4 per cent.

In the first quarter of this fiscal when the pick up segment grew at 23 per cent, M&M achieved 26 per cent growth.

"The industry growth is likely to be in the range of 11-12 per cent while we expect to end this fiscal with a growth of 15 per cent in the pick up segment," Kapoor said.

The company is also focusing on easy financing to increase sales. It has tied up with leading nationalized banks and NBFCs for easy processing of auto loans.

"Nationalised banks like SBI, PNB, SBBJ, BoB comprise 30 per cent of our auto loan portfolio. Mahindra Finance and other NBFCs contribute 30 per cent and 33 per cent respectively. And only 7 per cent customers pay in cash.

"Slashing of the interest rates on auto loan from average 18 per cent last fiscal to 12.5 per cent this year has also contributed to the growth in the sales," he said.