Ashok Leyland to export Boss ICV, to start Janbus deliveries in India

Ashok Leyland is set to begin exports of the Boss intermediate commercial vehicle (ICV) from June 2014. Since the vehicle’s launch in the domestic market last year, the Boss has sold around 1,000 units till now. Plans are also underway to assembly the Boss in the company’s Dubai facility.

According to Vinod Dasari, managing director, Ashok Leyland, “We will start exporting the Boss from next month onwards. Market studies are going on and based on the inputs we will make changes.” He added that the company will start assembling the Boss at the Dubai plant from CKD kits sent from India.

Meanwhile, the CV maker has received an order for 1,600 units of the front-engined, fully flat-floor Janbus for different State Transport undertaking (STUs). Deliveries are slated to from next week onwards.

Ashok Leyland, which like other commercial vehicle manufacturers had a tough 2013-14, saw its overall CV domestic market share slip by 0.83 percent from 13.33 percent in 2012-13 to 12.50 percent in 2013-14. As per SIAM sales data, the manufacturer sold a total of 79,110 CVs in the past fiscal. The intensely competitive M&HCV market fell sharply by 25.33 percent in 2013-14, for the second year in a row.

Presenting the company’s annual results, managing director Vinod K Dasari said, “In a very tough year, we restructured ourselves to reduce the overall fixed cost base while continuing to invest in new products, network, quality and sales processes. We also sold non-core assets, and reduced our working capital drastically, and used the funds to reduce debt.”

In 2013-14, Ashok Leyland sold a total of 51,827 M&HCVs (4,606 goods and 14,951 passenger carriers) and 27,283 LCVs (47 passenger carriers and 27,236 goods carriers).

According to the company, its speedy network expansion programme has helped improve reach and customer satisfaction, translating to market share gains in several regions. “While the Boss and the Captain truck series launches have excited the ICV and Tipper segment customers, the launch of the Stile, Partner and MiTR in the LCV space have made us a complete range player,” said Dasari.

The company exported 9,399 vehicles during 2013-14, posting a YoY growth of 4.4 percent despite a drastic fall in the Sri Lankan market.  “We believe the worst is over. We used the downturn to transform the company in many ways. With a stable government, we now expect the market to revive, starting possibly in the next quarter itself,” said Dasari.

The company registered a sales turnover of Rs 9,943 crore during FY’14 compared to Rs 12,481 crore in FY’13. Despite the lower revenues and heavy discounting in the marketplace, Ashok Leyland posted a net profit of Rs 29 crore.