Maruti plans aggressively to save falling market share

The Delhi headquarters of India's largest car maker Maruti Suzuki is buzzing with meeting and sessions among the top officials of the company, as it aggressively plans to maintain its threatened market share in the Indian market. The top strategists and planners of the company are believed to be working hard on finding a way to take on the new entrants (like Volkswagen) in the Indian market which has caused a steady fall in the market share of the company.  

The Indian auto giant's market share slipped below the crucial mark of 50 percent during the period of Jan-June 2010. The company reported a market share of 47 percent for the above given period. What can be considered as the biggest contributor to the fall of Maruti's market share in the Indian market is the entry of a series of new car in the volume-driven segment, something which Maruti Suzuki has always had a strong hold on.

A number of new compact-hatchbacks have been launched in the Indian market in last few months, including Chevrolet Beat in January, Ford Figo and Volkswagen Polo in March, and Nissan Micra in July. With this, many upcoming cars are in their final stage of launch in this high volume segment, like Toyota Etios which will be launched by Dec 2010 and Honda's new small car in March 2011.

However, Maruti India is on its feet and doing every bit to save its market share in the Indian market. The company has decided to set-up stock-yards for its cars in different cities of the country so that the delivery period for its popular cars can be brought down. It has already started the land acquisition process and the first such kind of stockyard will be set-up in Bangalore by the end of this year. The company has recently stated that it is preparing for a massive production capacity enhancement of 2.5 lakh units by the year 2012.