Suri says that although JLR has been a late entrant in this market, it has been able to achieve a good market position. "Today, our market share is approximately around 9 percent in the luxury car segment. So from that perspective, we are really happy with the growth. We have grown almost 15 times of what we were when we started. This whole growth story has been absolutely amazing."

Reasons for growth
"First of all, it is the iconic nature of these brands," Suri remarks. He believes that these brands are absolutely the best of the bests. According to him, the fact that the Tatas own it has been a very big plus. "Secondly, we have gone about it in a very structured manner. So we did not appoint dealers in hurry. We made sure that we had appropriate showrooms with proper infrastructure from where these cars are sold. This is supported by a world class after sales infrastructure. From the very beginning we have focussed on aspects like parts availability, parts distribution and so on. Plus, all our workshops were set up with world class equipment standardised by us."

Also, almost immediately after it launched in India, JLR started a training academy in Pune with expert trainers, who are constantly training its people in the network. "So this focus on making sure that the brands were well supported as far as the customer was concerned has helped us immensely."

(To be continued - Read the July 2016 issue for Complete story)

http://www.themachinist.in/latest_issue/worldwidemedia/2016-Jul