New Delhi, Oct 29 (PTI) Country's largest carmaker MarutiSuzuki India (MSI) has earmarked Rs 1,000 crore in the currentfiscal to buy land parcels for new dealerships.
As part of its network expansion strategy, the companyplans to buy land parcels, build dealerships and then leasethem to selected dealers.
MSI has already finalised 120 such land deals across thecountry in the first half of the current financial year.
"We have earmarked a budget of Rs 1,000 crore for thecurrent fiscal. We plan to have around 1,500 new dealershipsover the next three years," MSI Chief Financial Officer (CFO)Ajay Seth told PTI.
The trigger for the land purchase is increasing pricesacross the country, especially in high-potential belts, whichimpacted profitability of dealerships, he said.
The company currently has the biggest sales networkacross the country which includes 2,069 dealerships in 1,700cities.
It also sells its premium models from 280 premium retailchain Nexa. It also runs a network of around 3,293 servicecentres across the country.
MSI's bid to enhance sales network comes at time when ithas set a target to sell 20 lakh units per annum by 2020. Thecompany sold over 15 lakh units during the last fiscal.
The company is flush with funds and at the end of firsthalf of the current fiscal, MSI had a cash reserve of aroundRs 31,000 crore. PTI MSS SASBT.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.