Mahindra South Africa has had its best annual sales in a decade of operating in the country during 2013, bolstered primarily due to some government tenders.
The company sold 4 056 units of the range it offers in South Africa, maintaining a consistent upwards sales trend with a four per cent increase on the previous year. "We are very happy with our performance in a very competitive market," said the CEO of Mahindra SA, Ashok Thakur.
We now have 12 product lines in our local range of Mahindra and SsangYong vehicles and I am pleased to report that sales volumes were up in all but two of the model ranges," he added.
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Thakur said the most popular model in the Mahindra offering remained the Scorpio which made up about a third of the sales. Mahindra SA proved successful in several state tenders and supplied a variety of products - Bolero, Xylo and Scorpio SUV vehicles - to government departments. Total government sales for the year were over 200 units.
Thakur said that strong brand and image building programmes had been run over the past two years and the positive benefits came through strongly in recent market research. All these initiatives will continue in 2014 and are linked to Mahindra's global 'Rise' brand awareness campaign.
Interest in the SsangYong brand, which has been marketed in SA by Mahindra since 2012, is also growing. "What is particularly rewarding is the growth in our dealer network, with five more launched in 2013 to bring the total to 57 across the country," he added.
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