Ashok Leyland speeds ahead in commercial vehicles space

Ashok Leyland emerged a clear winner in the Medium and Heavy Commercial Vehicles (M&HCV) market during 2015-16 gaining better market share than its rivals.

During the year, the domestic M&HCV goods market registered an increase of 32% in sales at 258,488 units (against 195,918 units in 2014-15), while passenger segment sales grew 19% at 43,885 units (36,837 units).

The Hinduja Group Company, which is the second largest player in this segment, surpassed industry sales in goods and passenger categories with a growth of nearly 49% in each.

Ashok Leyland speeds ahead in commercial vehicles space

Ashok Leyland’s market share in the truck segment increased to 31% in FY16, up from 27% in 2014-15. In the bus segment, the company regained its market leadership position, which it had lost to Tata Motors in the recent past.

Its market share zoomed to about 45%, up from 36%. Ashok Leyland’s market share gains come at a time when the M&HCV market is witnessing intensified competition after the entry of more players such as Daimler, Scania and Mahindra.

Gopal Mahadevan, Chief Financial Officer, Ashok Leyland said that “We have gained market share in all regions including South, which accounts for about half of our volumes. There were three major factors that contributed to our turnaround and gain in market share network expansion, new product introductions and realignment of sales and internal operations.”

It ramped up “total sales and service points to 1,275 from about 275, in the past 6-7 years, a move that helped improve after-sales support quality.

Revamped product portfolio and filling up of gaps with new models incorporating international quality to match the global brands and realigned sales and internal processes to transform into a customer-centric organization also helped in turnaround.

Mahadevan added “While all players had the benefit of market recovery over the past couple of years, we were able to grow quite disruptively because we had not only strengthened network and product portfolio, but also became operationally more efficient.”

Source: http://goo.gl/RF0Btf