Maruti to double sales network by 2015

The country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) today said it aimed to double its sales network by 2015 across India with a focus on small towns and cities.

MSI today announced opening of its 1,000th sales showroom for its products in Surat, Gujarat, as a part of the strategy to expand into tier-II and tier-III cities across the country.

"Network expansion is strategic to our business and we would continue to focus on it. We target to double our sales network in next five years, in line with the company's sales plan," MSI Managing Director and CEO Shinzo Nakanishi said in a statement.

Besides the plan to increase the number of car outlets, the company has also undertaken an initiative of upgrading its three year old showrooms under project 'Nav Nirman'.

"The objective of 'Nav Nirman' is to provide customers uniform buying experience across the country," it added.

Meanwhile, the company which is facing labour unrest at its Manesar plant, said it has rolled out 690 Swift cars combined from Gurgaon and Manesar facilities today.

It also produced 60 units of A-star and SX4 models from Manesar plants.

"In the last two days, in addition to Swift, the company has also started making these two models at Manesar where focus until now remained on attaining normal production levels for Swift model," the company said in a separate statement.

Currently, there are 1,500 people available for production at Manesar plants. This includes 1,120 experienced and trained technicians brought in by the company in the last few days, it added.