Nissan announces new senior management for Indian operations

Chennai, April 16, 2013: Nissan Motor Co, which is targeting increased growth in the Indian market, has announced the appointment of Kenichiro Yomura (above left) as president of its India operations. Mr Yomura – who will report to Toru Hasegawa, corporate VP for Africa, Middle East and India – will concurrently hold the position of MD and CEO for Nissan Motor India and will be based at the company’s Chennai headquarters.

The appointment marks a significant change in Nissan’s senior management structure in India as Mr Yomura will hold responsibility for manufacturing, R&D and joint venture businesses. This, says Nissan, will accelerate strategic decision making and streamline operational efficiency to help achieve the company’s objective of securing a 10 percent market share in 2016 as part of its ‘Power 88’ plan. At present, Nissan has a 1.87 percent market share in the Indian passenger car market. In this expanded role, Mr Yomura will be responsible for developing strategies to maximise Nissan’s business performance, managing product introduction and significantly increasing the presence and accessibility of the Nissan brand through continuing network expansion.

Mr Yomura has spent over three decades in the automobile industry and his most recent role was as general manager overseeing Nissan's operations in the Middle East region.

At Nissan, he has held various roles of increasing seniority across numerous functions including public relations, government affairs, sales planning and marketing in the US, China, Japan and the Middle East. He has also been instrumental in establishing robust marketing and sales networks in multiple markets.

Meanwhile, Nissan has appointed Ajay Raghuvanshi (above right) as vice-president – Business Management, responsible for supporting pricing, marketing, sales and operations. He has over 24 years of experience in sales, marketing and distribution in India.

Prior to joining Nissan, Raghuvanshi was the national head for dealer development and rural sales operations for Hyundai Motor India and the business head for the western zone. He has had earlier stints with Honda, Tata Motors and India Yamaha Motor.

India focus
Nissan’s focus on India is not without reason. As per SIAM’s industry sales statistics, the company posted cumulative sales of 36,955 units in 2012-13, recording a year-on-year growth of 11.11 percent. It has two key models in the Micra hatchback and the Sunny saloon. While the Micra is facing sales pressure with overall sales of 11,449 units in 2012-13, down 38 percent (2011-12: 18,633), the popular Sunny has sold 23,998 units in 2012-13, a near-70 percent growth over the previous year (2011-12: 14,161). The bulk (over 19,000 units) of the Sunny’s sales have come from the diesel model.

In line with its 10 percent market share plan for 2016, Nissan plans to launch 10 new products by 2016, four of which will be launched in 2013-14. In this fiscal, Nissan plans to launch a CVT version of both the Micra and the Sunny, followed by a compact SUV and two Datsun products (a hatchback on the old Micra platform in January 2014 and an 800cc three-cylinder Hyundai Eon and Tata Nano rival by end-2014). To achieve this target, the company also plans to increase its on-ground presence to 300 dealers from the current 95 in the country.