Premier Auto plans to invest Rs 70 cr in its Pune facility

Premier Automobiles Limited plans to invest around Rs 70 crore in its new manufacturing facility at Chichwad in Pune over the next two to three years. The company, in the last one year, has already invested around Rs 20 crore in the facility.

Addressing a press conference to announce the launch of a multi-purpose diesel vehicle (MVP), Sigma, Atul Akolkar, head (sales and marketing) Premier Automobiles Limited, said, "The funds required would be raised through internal accruals by selling various pieces of land that the company owns."

Speaking about the MPV, Akolkar said, "During the hibernation period in the last four years, the company analysed the trends in the industry and decided to stay out of the mainstream and high target number volumes. And with the launch of Sigma, the company has entered an unexplored niche segment."

The vehicle has been developed in technical collaboration with China Motor Corporation, ROC-Taiwan, an affiliate of Mitsubishi.

The seven-seater vehicle comes at a ex-showroom price of Rs 4 lakh and is currently available in two models "" EX being a non-air conditioned model and DX having the roof mounted central air conditioner, which is available in metallic colours. "The vehicle has a two-litre high torque, fuel efficient diesel engine which is sourced from Hindustan Motors," Akolkar said.

According to him, except for the transmission line the rest of the components are outsourced. "Sigma, under test drive conditions, gives a mileage of 19.99 kmpl and for a mix of city and highway driving gives a mileage of 17.1 kmpl," he said.

The company which currently has a manufacturing capacity of 10,000 units per annum plans to increase it to 12,000 by the end of the current financial year and by the end of the next financial year plans to increase it to around 18,000 vehicles per annum.

He said that the company would appoint dealers in two phases. "In the first phase we would appoint dealers in the western and southern part of the country and during the second phase which would start in April the rest of the country would be covered," he said.

The company plans to have a total of 50 dealers across the country. It currently has 18 dealers in the western and southern parts of the country and plans to increase to around 25. In Andhra Pradesh the company is looking at having dealers in Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam and either in Nellore or Chittoor.

Akolkar said that the company was not in favour of having multiple dealers in a particular city as it would build internal rivalry which would in-turn effect customer service. The company also plans to launch more variants of Sigma and also a small one-tonne truck in the next one year.