Mahindra & Mahindra eyes 16% rise in pick-up segment

Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, a part of the $7.1 billion Mahindra Group, expects a 15-16 per cent rise in the overall pick-up segment in the country this year.

The company owns 75 per cent marketshare in the segment.

“We currently hold a 75 per cent share in the pick-up segment, equating to roughly 85,000 vehicles annually. Hence, the onus is on us to increase the overall market. We anticipate the segment to grow about 15-16 per cent during this year,” said Vivek Nayer, Senior Vice President-Marketing, Mahindra & Mahindra.

In 2010, the company posted a growth of 5 to 7 per cent growth in this category.

“We hope that the overall segment will have about 350,000 to 400,000 in the next two years,” Nayer said on the sidelines of the West Bengal launch of the company’s small commercial vehicle Genio.

“The 1.5 tonne pick-up will cater to the small and medium business transportation needs. It will be competitively priced at Rs 5.05 lakh for the West Bengal market,” he added.

M&M has invested approximately Rs 225 crore in Genio designing and manufacturing, and exports could be lined up sometime this year.

“We are looking at the export opportunities. Since we have a presence in South Asian countries and Africa, there is always a possibility,” Nayer said.

The Mahindra Genio vehicle architecture is based on the Ingenio platform.

The Mahindra Genio is available in four colors — silver shine (metallic), diamond white, marvel granite and skyline blue.

“We are also planning to launch another variant of Genio soon. However, the timing and launch is not decided,” he added.

Genio is the second product to roll out of Mahindra’s Chakan plant in Pune.

“The pick-up industry is of more than 6,500 vehicles per month and growing swiftly. We have the capacity to produce about 2,000 Genios per month and if th demand picks up, we may expand the capacity,” he said.