As a part of its expansion plan, Japan's Isuzu Motors on Thursday said that it is looking to increase its dealer network in the country six-folds to about 60 outlets by the end of the next financial year. The company kick started this expansion plan with the opening of its first dealership in north India in Delhi and also launched three variants of pick-up trucks under the D-Max range at an introductory price of Rs 5.89 lakh, Rs 6.09 lakh and Rs 6.99 lakh.
Going ahead, the company would add dealerships in Noida, Jaipur and ludhiana by the end of this financial year. It also plans to open outlets in Chandigarh, Amritsar, Jalandhar, lucknow, Kanpur and Udaipur by the end of next year.
While discussing their expansion plans, Takashi Kikuchi, Managing Director of Isuzu Motors India said, "The Delhi outlet is our 10th dealership in the country. We plan to expand the number to 60 by the end of 2015-16 to increase our presence in the country."
With pick-up segment growing at an exponential pace, Isuzu is confident that these new additions would be quite successful.
"In FY14, pick-up segment contributed to 35 per cent of the total commercial vehicle sale for the company. Also, the pick-up segment has taken over the small commercial vehicle segment in terms of the market share," said Shigeru Wakabayashi, Isuzu Motor India's EVP and Deputy Managing Director.
While giving an update on its proposed manufacturing plant, Kikuchi said, "We have invested Rs 30 billion or Rs 3,000 crore in the setting up the facility in Andhra Pradesh which is expected to start production in 2016. The ground leveling working is over and soon the construction would start."
Proposed facility would start the production with a capacity of 50,000 units which the company later plans to expand to over 1 lakh units per annum.
The company is aiming to create India into a manufacturing hub for all its emerging markets and once the plant is ready, the company would be looking to achieve 100 per cent localization of parts and components for its vehicles.
When asked if the lock down in Hindustan Motor's (HM) Kolkata plant would impact the final assembly of Isuzu motor India's vehicles, Kikuchi said, "We import all the parts from Thailand which HM assembles in its Chennai plant. So any lock down its HM's Kolkata plant won't have any impact on us."