Maruti Suzuki expects sales to increase during the festive season

Business Business: Maruti Suzuki India’s senior executive for marketing and sales Partho Banerjee is hopeful that the automaker can repeat October’s record sales in November as well, thanks to “a few lakh weddings”, reports PTI. Speaking to the news agency after India’s largest carmaker recorded its highest ever retail sales in October this year, Banerjee said the company is counting on the wedding season to “carry forward the festive sales momentum”.

Maruti Suzuki sold a record 2,02,402 units in October 2024 – its highest ever sales in the month, breaking the previous sales record for the month from October 2020, when it sold 1,91,476 units. Asked if Maruti Suzuki will be able to continue the festive season sales momentum for the next few months, Banerjee told PTI, “We are of the view that there are going to be some ‘few lakh’ weddings across the country (in November). So we are very hopeful that this will give us a good boost in terms of our retail sales as well.” “We will have to see, but we feel that this time there are a fair number of weddings in the month of November. The number of days for weddings is at an all-time high of about 11 or 12 days… We are hopeful that in November, since there are so many weddings, the momentum will continue, and that is what we are waiting for,” he added. Banerjee feels Maruti Suzuki is “on track” with a forecast of 4-5 per cent growth for the current fiscal. When asked about the company’s outlook, he said the forecast is in line with expectations.

“In terms of retail sales in the April to October period, we have cumulatively had a growth of about 4 per cent. In October, we had a growth of 22.4 per cent… At the beginning of the year, it was estimated that this year, the growth would be around 4 per cent to 5 per cent. I think it will be in line with that,” he said. Following good retail sales in October, he said the company has been able to reduce inventory across its sales network. “We have corrected our network stock to over 40,000 units. We calibrated our production supply, and now our network stock is about a month’s worth. We have been able to bring down the network stock to 30 days,” Banerjee said.