The Coimbatore-based Anamallais Agencies (Stadium) is one of the oldest dealer partners of Eicher trucks and buses in the country. Established in 1986, the company has captured the lion’s share of the market and has remained the best performing dealer of Eicher for many years in a row.
Mr. C.S. Vigneshwar, Deputy Managing Director, Anamallais Agencies (Stadium), sounded quite bullish about the prospects of the company up to 2020 and beyond. He said: “Although four years is too much of a horizon to predict, given the recent upheavals in the market, we are quite upbeat about our prospects. Things are looking up in 2016 after a period of relative lull. The growth that we have been seeing recently is very heartening.”
Mr. Vigneshwar stated that the dealership’s market share in the regions where it operates (Coimbatore, Tiruppur, Erode, Nilgiris, Madurai, Virudhunagar, Theni, Sivagangai, and Ramnad) with respect to heavy duty trucks has grown this year. Its market share in the LMD segment has also grown to 43 per cent from 37 per cent last year.
He added: “It helped that Volvo-Eicher has added new products this year. For example, Pro 3000 series has been introduced. 1049 series, consisting of smaller vehicles, has been a big success. We already have around 40% market share in the Bus segment and 12% market share in HD segment. The customers are also fast evolving. They are willing to buy a product at a certain premium because they know that in the medium to long term; it will come back to them in terms of added value.”
Mr. Vigneshwar feels that the Volvo-Eicher collaboration has come as a shot in the arm for dealers. Explaining it, he said: “Eicher has always had a very strong connect with the customers. Volvo has brought in certain processes, technologies and systems, which have further helped dealers like us consolidate our position in the market.”
Mr. Vigneshwar believes that the company’s customer-centric initiatives have provided it with a competitive edge. For instance, the unique ‘Welcome Kit’ offered to the drivers who call for breakdown services. “Customers are dear to us. We are always trying to improve our offering to the customer. Our mobile service van has a welcome kit with two bottles of water, two bottles of fresh juice and two packets of biscuits. We tell the driver ‘you go and refresh while we take care of your vehicle’. With this initiative, we are taking care of the driver, we are also informing the owner of the vehicle, plus we are rectifying the faults in the vehicle. It is this kind of an approach that gives us the competitive edge.”
Queried about the company’s expansion plans in terms of physical infrastructure, Mr. Vigneshwar said: “We already have seven service facilities. We are replacing two old facilities in Madurai and Erode. The upgraded and modernized facilities are expected to be up and running by April 2017. We are also planning to add two more new facilities in Coimbatore and Madurai regions over the next few years.”
Continuing further, he observed: “We are targeting a sale of 1,700 units this year. We have grown by about 18 per cent this year. However, we intend to grow at an average rate of around 17 per cent from now to 2020. Ideally, we should be selling 60 per cent more vehicles by 2020. It could be a little higher also. We are hopeful that the market sentiment will remain positive.”
Looking to the future, Anamallais feels the only way to beat competition is by having a world-class team which fully understands the customer needs and acts as consultant to tackle the challenges faced by the end-user. For this, the company plans to start a ‘manpower excellence center’ to further strengthen the skills and training requirements of its team.
By M.K. Prabhakar