Partho Banerjee, Maruti Suzuki India’s Senior Executive Officer for Marketing and Sales, is optimistic that the automaker can match its October record sales in November, too, thanks to a “few lakhs of marriages” during the month, PTI reported.
Speaking to the news agency after India’s largest car manufacturer saw its highest retail sales ever for October this year, Banerjee said the company is banking on the wedding season to “carry forward the festive sales momentum”, as per the report.
Maruti Suzuki sold a record 2,02,402 units in October 2024 — its highest ever in the month, and breaking a previous sales record for the month from October 2020, when it sold 1,91,476 units.
‘Expect Marriage Season to Carry Momentum’
When asked whether Maruti Suzuki would be able to carry on the momentum of festive season sales for the next few months, Banerjee told PTI, “We are made to understand that some ‘few lakhs’ marriages are being planned across the country (in November). So we are pretty hopeful that it will also give us good traction in terms of our retail sales.”
“We have to see, actually, but we feel there are a good number of marriages this time in the month of November. The number of days for marriages they are almost at an all-time high of some 11 or 12 days… We are hopeful that in November, since so many marriages are there, the momentum will carry, and that’s what we are looking forward to,” he added.
Boost for Retail Sales
Banerjee feels that Maruti Suzuki is “on track” with the forecast of 4-5 per cent growth for the ongoing fiscal. When asked about the company’s outlook, he said that the forecast is “in line” with expectations.
“In terms of retail sales in the April to October period, we have a growth of almost 4 per cent cumulatively. In October, we had a growth of 22.4 per cent…at the beginning of the year, it was projected that this year, the growth will be around 4 per cent to 5 per cent. I think it will be in line with that,” he stated.
Subsequently to the good retail sales in October, he said the company has been able to trim inventory in its sales network. “We have corrected our network stock by more than 40,000 units. We calibrated our production supplies, and now our network stock is almost one month. We have been able to bring network stock to 30 days,” Banerjee said.
On Discounts and Prices
On discounts, he said these vary from region to region and market to market, and the company has moved away from deciding it from the headquarters. “What we have done is that we have made it very market-specific. Now we are not controlling it from the head office. We have allowed our field team to take the calls based on the market needs as each market behaves in a different way. We need to respect the customer’s viewpoint, and accordingly, we need to act actually,” he added.
When asked if the company is planning a price hike in January as the year-end approaches, Banerjee said, “Our finance team is examining that, and it is too early for me to give a comment.”
