India's largest automaker today announced its results for the last quarter of the 2017-2018 financial year. With sales up by 11.4 per cent as compared to the same period a year before and profits up by 10 percent, the automaker is on a roll. At the announcement, R C Bhargava, Chariman, Maruti Suzuki India Limited also mentioned that the automaker will be opening 300 new showrooms in this financial year. These new showrooms will include the premium outlets Nexa, the mainstream outlets, now called 'Arena' and also the commercial outlets from which Maruti Suzuki sells its small utility pickup vans.
Maruti Suzuki will also be investing Rs 980 Crores in FY 2018-2019 to buy select parcels of land across the country, which will then be used for showrooms and service centres. In FY 2017-2018, Maruti Suzuki spent a total of Rs 790 Crore to buy 67 parcels of land in order to use them as showrooms and service outlets. These land parcels will then be leased out to dealers to run their operations out of. Although the number of these land parcels have been pegged at 100 for the coming year, on the side lines of the press conference, R C Bhargava also mentioned that this figure could increase if deemed necessary.
Maruti Suzuki will need all the showrooms it can manage to keep up its growth figures. The automaker has grown by 13.4 per cent in the last financial year despite issues with production capacity. The automaker will also be launching new products in the coming financial year along with updates and upgrades to its current cars. These new products might include the Ciaz facelift and the recently showcased 2018 Ertiga.
