Maruti Suzuki is notorious for making its customers wait and with growing competition they can’t afford to do that anymore. Hence the company has started work on setting up vehicle stockyards in various parts of the country to bring down the waiting time. The first such stockyard will be set up within the next six months in Bangalore, acquisition of land for which is already over. Populasr cars like the Swift, Dzire and the Eeco enjoy a waiting period of almost four months. The company has earmarked a Rs. 200 crore for setting up these stockyards and model showrooms around the country. The yards, which will be spread over 25 acres of land, will also help in reducing the working capital requirement of dealers as the need for maintaining a large fleet at the dealerships will come down.
“The intention is to set up at least one stockyard in each of the zones, North, South, East and West. Such a concept is important for a vast country like India and will reduce the waiting period for the customers,” said a company official. “Very often there is a mis-match between the variant and colour of a particular car that a customer wants and the car that is available at the dealership. Setting up regional stockyards will increase availability of the cars and reduce time of transportation.”
Source – HT