Maruti expects increase sales in Feb-09

 The highest-ever monthly sales that it achieved in January, car market leader ,Maruti Suzuki India today said it expects its sales growth for this  month to be around 5-7 per cent.

In January,Maruti Suzuki India Chief General Manager for Marketing Shashank Srivastava said that they closed the month with the highest monthly sales and in this month also they are expecting that there should be about five to seven per cent growth in sales. In order to meet increasing demand, the company had increased production in January and should do the same in this month also.

 Srivastava has also stated that the company is currently producing in excess of capacities in both Manesar and Gurgaon plants. The cars produced from Manesar -- DZiRE, SX4, A-Star -- are having a long waiting period amongst the customers and we are still trying to increase the production in the Manesar plant. MSI would be increasing its sales network as to tighten the grip in the Indian market.

In the next 2-3 years,the company is  planning to increase the dealership network to 1,000 across the country from the current 600 dealers.
 For the January-March period, MSI has received export order for about 23,000 units of its latest model A-Star. Srivastava also said that, since the launch of the car (A-Star), the company have already exported it's 9,000 units.

When Srivastava was asked about how the company expects to close the current fiscal in terms of sales, he said, For the current fiscal probably growth will be tough, but we hope to reach last year's level.

The company achieved total sales of 7,64,842 units for the 2007-2008 fiscal. It sold 71,779 vehicles in January 2009.