Hyundai Motor India is working towards adding 300 rural sales outlets in India within the next two months as the company gears up to launch its cheapest car in India by November of 2011. In May, 2011, Hyundai had announced its decision to launch a small car in India with a price tag below Rs. 300,000. Codenamed HA, the car would give a stiff competition to Maruti Suzuki’s Alto.
Apart from the company’s standard 325 dealerships in the cities, the new rural outlets will take the total number of the rural sales network to 1,000. Arvind Saxena, Director (marketing and sales), Hyundai Motor India told the Financial Chronicle that the company has added 700 rural outlets to the existing ones and plans to add another 300 in the new few months. Unlike the standard outlets which are made with brick and mortar, these rural outlets are built with small investments, sans the brick and mortar. These rural outlets would help the company to reach out to a wider range of customers as the company executives would conduct car demos, test drives and attend to the small repair requirements in these rural outlets.
The typical size of these rural showrooms is 900 sq ft and around 150 of the rural outlets are equipped with their own service workshops of 2,000 sq ft. The company has also formed a four-member rural model team consisting of two sales and two service executives which will regularly visit the rural outlets.
With its rural model, the company aims to increase its sales share in the rural markets from the current 31% to 33% by the end of 2011.
