Tata Motors plans launch blitz in pick-up niche

Wants to retrieve lost market share; to add 15 dealers in south

 Tata Motors is taking all possible steps to improve its market share in the pick-up segment. The company is trying to plug gaps in the segment through a slew of new launches, according to Tata Motors Senior Vice President (commercial vehicles business unit) R Ramakrishnan.

“We are taking steps to improve market share in some of our weaker territories like the south, where we are doing a lot of interventions to improve market share. In the pick-up space, we are doing a few product interventions and they will be in the market in this quarter. So we are addressing all those gaps in our product and markets which will help us regain our market share,” Ramakrishnan told Deccan Herald.

“In the pick-up segment, we have lost market share compared with last year as the products that we have are not able to defend the space effectively enough. We are planning to launch at the lower end of the pick-up segment through a version of the Ace called the Ace Mega. We will get one or two more products in the higher end of the pick-up segment. So as a result, in the 2-tonne-3.5-tonne space, we will have 3-4 products with which we will be able to defend our turf and regain our market share,” Ramakrishnan added.

According to Ramakrishnan, the company also has plans to expand its dealership network going forward. “In the next six  months to two years, we want to appoint another 15 dealers in the south of which 4 to 5 will be in Tamil Nadu itself,” Ramakrishnan said.

Currently in the south, the company has 34 dealers, which is actually lower than what it is in the other regions. The other regions are somewhere in the range of 50-70 dealers, Ramakrishnan added.

Out of these 34 dealers in the South, 11 are in Tamil Nadu, nine in undivided Andhra Pradesh, 10 in Karnataka, and four in Kerala. Of these 34, eight dealerships have been added in the last two years itself of which five are in Tamil Nadu alone.

Ramakrishnan also said that the company is working on improving capacity utilisation for the commercial vehicles business and that there are no plans to shut down any manufacturing unit.

“Capacity utilisation is close to 50 per cent currently. In the latter part of the year, we should see the small CV segment grow and that is where the bigger volumes are. So I believe in the span of next 6-9 months, we should see a significant improvement in capacity utilisation levels,” he said.

Each plant is catering to a certain product typically and in some cases, geography or other specific requirements. We have no plans to shut down any units, Ramakrishnan added.