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MOTORINDIA
l
August 2012
Kerala leads in
SML-Isuzu
sales
for seventh consecutive year
Though comparatively smaller in
size, Kerala’s commercial vehicle
requirements are much higher, par-
ticularly for transportation of plan-
tation goods, timber, etc. For the
Chandigarh-based SML-Isuzu Ltd.,
the State has proved the real centre
of gravity in the sense that it has
maintained leadership in selling the
record number of commercial vehi-
cles in the country for seven consec-
utive years.
Disclosing this in an exclusive in-
terview to MOTORINDIA, Mr. V.
Nilakantan, known as Neel among
his friends, said that during 2011-
12 his company sold 2,535 vehi-
cles in Kerala, which is the highest
number among States in the country.
In fact, the company was targeting
sales of 2,800 units. However, the
figure could not be reached because
of some supply constraints. It has
strong plans to grow minimum of
20 per cent in the current financial
year. Interestingly, in the range of 5T
to 12T GVW, SML-Isuzu vehicles
emerged the market leader in Kerala
with a hefty 35 per cent market share.
The State also offered good market
for the company range of newly in-
troduced buses, trucks and chassis.
According to Mr. Nilakantan,
since there is a growing demand
for SML-Isuzu products in Kerala,
the company expanded its sales and
service dealership last year. Today,
the company has a dealership net-
work covering all the 14 districts of
Kerala.
Recently, the company bagged a
bulk order from the All Kerala Ce-
ment Dealers Association, Palakkad,
and a special function was got up for
handing over keys to the Association
members. The function, which was
addressed by Mr. Nilakantan, was at-
tended by the officials of Sundaram
Finance Ltd., New India Assurance
Co., and the Cement Dealers Asso-
ciation.
‘Kudos to Neel’
The secret of success of Mr. Ni-
lakantan lies in his simplicity, humil-
ity and his inborn nature of helping
others around him. No doubt his ag-
gressive marketing approach, cou-
pled with his vast experience in the
CV field, kept Kerala the No.1 State
for SML-Isuzu for seven years in a
row.
w
vehicle zone
By R. Natarajan, Managing Editor & Publisher
Mr. V. Nilakantan,
Area Manager, SML Isuzu Ltd.
Mr. V. Nilakantan addressing a meeting held in connection with handing over of keys
to customers through the company authorised dealer, Kingston Motors, Palakkad. The
others (from left) are Mr. Ramachandran, Branch Manager, Sundaram Finance Ltd.,
Mr. Raghavan, Branch Manager, New India Assurance Co., Mr. Ansari, President, Ce-
ment Dealers Association, Palakkad, and Mr. Sreekumaran Nair, Managing Partner,
Kingston Motors
For the current year, SML-Isuzu has
set an ambitious plan for setting up
new world-class workshops in Trivan-
drum and the other parts of Kerala. A
new state-of-the-art workshop cover-
ing 15,000 sq.ft. will be operational
by August. Recently the Kannur SML
dealer set up a sophisticated show-
room-cum-workshop with modern
amenities.