MAN Trucks, which is owned by the Volkswagen Group will no longer have products on sale in India.
India has a wide transport network that includes the Railways, Airways and of course, the Roadways. While the former are faster, the Roadways are more economical and have a wider reach than the other two. Trucks dominate how the materials and products are transported through these and India has a huge truck market space. However, there’s one company that couldn’t really capture this segment like it wanted to, MAN Trucks.
MAN Trucks had entered the Indian market through an alliance with the Force Motors in 2006. This alliance was for the manufacturing and sales of the premium MAN trucks in the country. A manufacturing plant was also setup in Pithampur, Madhya Pradesh. It is fully owned by MAN and will shut shop by October this year. The company doesn’t want to leave the orders as it is and will be closing down only after delivering all the trucks.
MAN is already looking for a buyer and the future of the current employees too has been chalked out. While the employees working at the company’s Pune Corporate office and regional offices have been given the option of Voluntary Separation Scheme (VSS), the future of the factory’s employees will be decided only after the sale of the plant.
Even though the manufacturing plant is shutting down, MAN will still have its after-sales service network running. This is being done so that the current owners are not left to hand-wring. The decision to shut its India business has come on the back of plummeting sales. The company managed to sell only 2000 units of its trucks per year whereas the plant was designed to produce around 12,000 units.
MAN Trucks India will however continue to function as an R&D centre for their global products. Their sister company Scania also exited the Indian bus market to focus only on its truck business. MAN also happens to be the second major company to exit the Indian market after General Motors stopped functioning in India fourteen months ago. Foreign companies seem to be having a tough time competing with the Indian truck and bus manufacturers like Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra.
MAN Trucks Exit India
– The company will stop selling its trucks in the Indian market
– The reason is the poor sales that the company has here
– The company will however continue to run its R&D department for its global products
Source – ETAuto.com