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MOTORINDIA
l
June 2012
company exported vehicles to CIS
countries and Sub-Saharan Africa,
apart from its traditional SAARC
market, outside which the export
growth was an impressive 69 per
cent. It also successfully collabo-
rated with body-builders in coun-
tries such as Vietnam, Singapore,
Turkey, Ukraine, Egypt and Peru, to
build buses on its chassis.
The DOST continues to be popu-
lar with an expanding dealer net-
work, and with a 29 per cent share
in the six markets in which it has
been launched and a national market
share of 17 per cent. The company
currently produces 100 vehicles per
day which is likely to be stepped up
to 150.
The company’s efforts to protect
its bottomline through its focus
on non-cyclical or support busi-
nesses yielded rich dividends, with
Leyparts, the spare parts business,
growing by 20 per cent and both the
Defence and power solutions busi-
nesses holding their own. Ashok
Leyland Defence has sold over
60,000 stallion vehicles to the In-
dian army and also exports them to
Honduras, Africa and the US Army
in Iraq.
Pant Nagar facility
Ashok Leyland’s Pant Nagar plant
which has been ramped up to full
capacity rolled out 4,001 vehicles in
March 2012. The company is proud
that the facility is one of the most in-
tegrated commercial vehicle plants
in the world, with forgings, cast-
ings and sheet-metal fed on one side
and a full-built truck rolling out on
the other. The company is doubling
the frame capacity, adding
a new press shop and two
new weld lines – one for
Avia trucks and the other
for the new cab which will
replace the U-truck cab
over the next two years.
Ashok Leyland has also
planted over 40,000 trees
at Pant Nagar as part of its
CSR drive. This offers a
unique opportunity for the
locals to learn and work at
the same time through the
‘blessing scheme’ and also
has a state-of-the-art learn-
ing centre near the plant.
With 20 to 25 per cent of
the employees there being
female, the company has
set up the country’s first on-
site girls’ hostel, with three
more modules of the same
coming up in the plant.
With multi-axle vehi-
cles accounting for half the
vehicle zone
Another big step forward in
the LCV project is the acquisi-
tion of a 380-acre land at Pil-
laipakkam, near Chennai, for
a green-field facility to cater
to the overwhelming demands
of the LCV segment. An in-
vestment of around Rs. 4,000
crores has been earmarked for
the LCV project and also for an
expansion in the M&HCV seg-
ments.
Focus on Truck industry