Leyland Deere launches 435 backhoe loader in Maharashtra

Mumbai, October 29, 2012: Unveiled at the Excon expo last year and rolled out commercially in January 2012, Leyland Deere has now launched its first construction equipment (CE) -- the 435 backhoe loader -- in Maharashtra. The Chennai-based company, which is a 50:50 JV between the CV major Ashok Leyland and the global CE maker, John Deere, has sold more than 500 units of the backhoe loader across the South Indian states. The company also inaugurated its first dealership in the state, at Panvel. According to company officials, the equipment will cost Rs 23.75 lakh (ex-showroom, Maharashtra). With ongoing expansion at the Gummdipoondi plant, 50km from Chennai, the company is also working on developing wheeled loaders for mining specific operations; it plans to launch them by 2014.

V Sumantran, chairman, Ashok Leyland John Deere Construction Equipment Company (ALJDCEC), said: “Cognizant of India’s huge appetite for infrastructure development, we are well equipped with a pipeline of products, led by the 435 backhoe loader, to tap the huge potential that exists. Maharashtra, in particular, has been a state known to be at the forefront for development and is abounding with opportunities.”

The 435 backhoe loader is powered by Ashok Leyland’s H-series BS-III compliant, 3.8-litre, four-cylinder, 75hp engine which uses a mechanical fuel injection pump. Explaining the suitability of the backhoe loader to the Indian conditions, P Ravishankar, CEO, ALJDCEC, informed that “the mechanical fuel injection pump is less sensitive to various qualities of diesel fuel available in the rural areas of the country. So the engine will continue to perform efficiently even if it is fed with the regular contaminated fuel in the rural areas. The machine is well packaged to offer low cost of ownership with new unique features.” The backhoe loader comes with ZF’s automatic transmission which has a four front and two reverse gear system, and axles. It provides the dig depth capability of up to 15 feet unlike the 14 feet dig depth capability provided by rival machines.

Explaining the focus on network and service support, C Anand, VP (sales and marketing), ALJDCEC, mentioned that “we follow a target of fixing our equipment within 8 hours where we ensure the availability of our service men and the spare parts to our customers. So far we have been able to do so in an average of 4.66 hours in areas where this backhoe is commercially available.” The company has a network of more than 60 customer touch-points across seven states and is looking to expand it to 250 outlets by March 2014 which will include 15 such touch-points in Maharashtra alone. According to company officials, the current annual market size of the backhoe loaders stand at close to 33,000 units where CE major JCB holds a 74 percent share. With the long term growth intact, the market is expected to remain marginally flat in the short term.

AMIT PANDAY