Volvo India aims to grow into billion dollar company by 2015

Volvo Buses India, a subsidiary of Sweden-based Volvo Bussar AB, today said it aims become a billion dollar company by 2015 and will invest Rs 200-300 crore to ramp up production capacity to achieve this goal.

The company clocked a turnover of Rs 600 crore last year and expects to register growth of 25% in this year.

"Even as we have changed the bus industry over the past 10 years, the next five years will see Volvo Buses in India moving manifold time faster than it has ever did before," said Volvo Buses India MD Akash Passey here.

"This growth will be marked by our investments into expanding our industrial base, much higher export levels, new customer experiences across India and of course a range of product concepts. Together we aim to create an opportunity to sell 5,000 buses and be a billion dollar company," he said.

He was speaking on the sidelines at the Bus and Special vehicles expo-2011, a three-day event being organised by Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers and CII here.

Passey said the company will invest Rs 200-300 crore in next two to three years. This will help ramp up the production capacity to 5,000 buses in the coming years, from its current 1,000 buses per annum.

These new investments are aimed at fuelling the growth of the company in years to come, he said.

Currently, Volvo commands a dominant share of 80% within the inter-city luxury AC coaches market and presence in 13 cities in India with its city buses and over 50% market share in the AC Diesel Low Floor City buses, which are present across 12 cities in the country.

Explaining about the features of Volvo's I-Shift technology, he said the technology is an automated gear changing mechanism and driver-friendly.

He said Volvo Buses India will step up on its exports from the current year and it will account for 25-30% of total volumes of India over the next few years.