Maruti Suzuki Aims to Strengthen Presence in Rural India

Maruti Suzuki, India's largest carmaker, is now looking at increasing its presence in rural areas by over 20 per cent i.e. 1.5 lakh villages. Interestingly, the company's rural sales grew by 23 per cent in the last fiscal to to 4,15,380 units.

RS Kalsi, Executive Director, Marketing & Sales, Maruti Suzuki India, told PTI, "In FY14-15 our penetration in rural areas stood at 34.5 per cent (of total sales) as compared to 32 per cent in FY 13-14. In FY14-15 we established presence in 1.25 lakh villages. Target going forward will be to enhance presence in 1.5 lakh villages."

He further added that over 7 per cent the company's sales comes from villages with less than 200 households. However, the rural sales seem to have suffered the brunt of delayed monsoon and also due to the recent bouts of unseasonal rains. MSI is convinced matters will show improvement soon.

Kalsi said, "Barring the current situation, the long term growth story of rural India looks good and promising. As infrastructural jobs reach rural India, the dependency on agriculture may come down."

(With inputs from PTI)