The past few months have not been of much success for Renault India. Post the partnership breakup with Mahindra, the company had to start all over from scratch. There were tough roads ahead for the newly launched Koleos and Fluence which catered to the higher end market. Not much good news came from the mass market offering, the Pulse, too. Hopes are high on the recently launched Duster compact SUV. The company has spent a good deal of time, money and effort on the launch of Duster. Much of the focus has been on expanding its operations and getting the logistics. Importance was on getting the right product at the right time. With so many plans in place, most of the responsibilities are on the shoulders of the MD, Mr. Marc Nassif.
The Cairo-born, Mr. Nassif, is all set to ramp up the company’s position in the market. Currently, the company is ranked 13th and has a market share of 0.24 percent in India. The situation of the company needs to shape up. For this, Mr. Nassif has set a goal of touching 1 lakh units sales by 2013-14, at the same time taking the market share to a good five percent. Well, the goal is not an easy one as it might look. The French Automaker sold below 4,000 units in the current fiscal. However Renault has already received 6000 bookings for the Duster, within 5 days of launch.
“Renault India has a great product plan. The challenge will be to scale up the organization, dealerships and deliver 1,00,000 vehicles a year. India needs to be among the top 10 markets for Renault by 2013,” Mr. Nassif said.
So, the main aim for the company is to ramp up the sales volumes. Perhaps, the festive season might come as an advantage. It is the same time when the fifth model will be launched in the market. Named Scala, it’s a re-bagged Sunny. It will have a few added features and would be priced higher than the Sunny. The Nissan and Renault joint manufacturing strategy too might help the company. Will the goal of reaching 1 lakh unit sales be as simple as shedding 30 kg in the last six months by Mr. Nissaf? We are here to witness.
