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Maruti interiors venture to sell wares to others

BS Corporate Bureau in Mumbai

Krishna Maruti, the exclusive auto interiors supplier to Maruti Udyog, in which both Maruti and Suzuki holds a stake, is planning to broadbase its customer base by offering its range of products to other automobile manufacturers.

It is learnt that it is in talks with automobile companies such as Toyota, Honda, Telco, Ford and Fiat among others for a supply arrangement.

Ashok Kapur, chairman and managing director of Krishna Maruti, said, “We are currently in negotiations with various automobile companies to sell our products. The move is aimed towards increasing business as we have set a target to achieve a turnover of Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion) in three years.”

It currently has a turnover of Rs 175 crore (Rs 1.75 billion). Kapur holds 37.50 per cent in Krishna Maruti, while Suzuki Motor Corporation of Japan holds 24.25 per cent and Maruti Udyog holds another 13.25 per cent.

The balance 13.25 per cent is held by Fidelity Investment, an overseas corporate body.

The company the largest and only total auto interior company with five manufacturing locations and seven products such as seats, door trims, roof headliner, carpets, mirrors, seat trims and PU pads. The auto interior industry is estimated to have a size of around Rs 1,500 crore (Rs 15 billion).

“We will also be tapping the two wheeler industries to sell our products,” Kapur added.

The board of Krishna Maruti constitutes of S Takeuchi of Suzuki, K Kumar of Maruti, Rajan Nanda, chairman of the Escorts group, Sanjay Labroo, chairman of Asahi Glass, Amrinder Sawhney, director of Fidelity Investment and Sunandan Kapur, the chief executive of the company.

...raises exports target for Alto to 24000 units

Maruti Udyog has revised its target for exports of its small car Alto in the financial year 2002-03 from the original 14,000 units to 24,000 units. This has been necessitated by increasing demand from the European markets. Maruti had originally planned to export 14,000 units of the Alto.

Powered by the success of the new Suzuki Alto in Europe, Maruti is set to increase its exports by 150 per cent this year. The company expects to export over 31,000 vehicles during 2002-03, compared to 12,232 vehicles in the previous year.

The Alto 1.1 which comes fitted with a 1100 cc engine was launched in Europe at the Geneva Motor Show in March 2002. “Since its launch, the vehicle has received tremendous response from Western Europe, the most competitive market for compact cars,” a Maruti spokesperson said.

Based on the initial discussions with distributors, Maruti had planned to export 14,000 units of the Alto. Subsequently it was introduced in Germany, The Netherlands, Finland, Greece, Austria, Ireland and UK. Maruti decided to increase its export targets as the orders from these countries swelled with increasing popularity, according to a company statement issued on Thursday.

Maruti was the largest exporter of Completely Built cars in the country during 2001-02, both in terms of volumes and value, the release said.

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