Car market leader Maruti Suzuki India on Saturday said it expects to have record sales on Dhanteras clocking over 50,000 units, while rival Hyundai Motor India also posted over 20 per cent growth over last year at about 14,000 units.
This year Dhanteras is spread over two days as it was in the last year between Saturday and Sunday. Although many customers hesitate to buy the metal on Saturday, Maruti Suzuki India is expecting to reach around 41,000 deliveries today, company Senior Executive Officer, Marketing & Sales, Partho Banerjee told reporters in an interaction.
"This is going to be the all-time high deliveries, which we have done during the period of any time. Moreover, we are expecting that there will be another 10,000 customers who have hesitated to take the delivery today, due to Saturday, they will be taking the delivery tomorrow,” he noted. He further said,”We are expecting to cross even the 50,000 mark.” The company’s production team is also working even on holiday to meet Dhanteras demand, Banerjee said.
The company’s previous highest Dhanteras sales was last year when it clocked around 41,500 units, he added. Due to the ”GST 2.0 magic” many of the customers are flocking to the showrooms, he said, adding in many of the places the company may not be in a position to give vehicles unless bookings and deliveries are not taken on time.
Expressing similar views, Hyundai Motor India Ltd MD & CEO Designate Tarun Garg said,”We are witnessing strong customer demand, with deliveries expected to be around 14,000 units approximately, 20 per cent higher than last year. The positive momentum is driven by the festive spirit, a buoyant market environment and the encouraging impact of GST 2.0 reforms.”
He also noted that this year, Dhanteras deliveries are spread across multiple days because of it being a Saturday. When asked about the overall festive season sales starting from Navratri, Banerjee said for Maruti Suzuki the traction has been very good and the company has been ”getting close to 14,000 bookings every day on average”.
Since September 18, when the company reduced prices, he said, ”Almost 4.5 lakh bookings have come in one month and small car booking is almost touching one lakh. We have already touched close to 94,000 small cars.” On the retail side, he said, ”In this one month period it is close to 3.25 lakh units (for the company).”
On the consumer electronics side, Panasonic Life Solutions Director and Head- Sales consumer division, Sandeep Sehgal said, ”This Dhanteras, we are witnessing a strong customer turnout since morning, with robust demand across product categories.” He further said, ”Large screen TVs, particularly those of 55 inches and above, are leading the momentum, contributing to a 4K sellout growth of over 36 per cent from October 1 to 17.
Overall, we anticipate around 30 per cent growth in both the TVs and RAC categories compared to last year’s Dhanteras.” Tanishq Senior Vice President Arun said, ”We are seeing a healthy mix of purchases – from investment-driven buys above Rs 2 lakh to high demand for lightweight jewellery and gold coins around Dhanteras.”
This festive season has been uniformly strong across markets, with consistently encouraging responses from metros as well as Tier-2 and Tier-3 towns, he added. Haier Appliances India also said the sell-out is good this Dhanteras, led by premium products such as large screen TV sets, side-by-side refrigerator and front-load washing machine. ”We expect growth of more than 50 per cent,” said Haier India President N S Satish.
According to him, the growth is helped by the reduction in duty under the latest round of GST reforms in which the government has reduced duties on products such as air-conditioners, TV (32-inch and above screen size) and dishwashers. Besides, reduction on the duty of other daily essential goods has also indirectly put more money in the hands of customers.
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