Scania is indeed a globally-renowned brand when it comes to trucks, buses and engines. The Swedish major entered the Indian market in 2007, partnering L&T for sales of its high-end tippers for the construction and mining segment. It subsequently forayed into the on-road truck and inter-city bus segments, recording in the last two years remarkable sales and, more importantly, ready market and customer acceptance.
Apart from stand-out quality and performance of its products, Scania is also famous for its unique selling approach. The company had appointed Navnit Motors in Mumbai in late 2012 as its first dealer for on-road trucks and buses in India.
We caught up with Mr. Vijay Kachalia, Director, Navnit Group, for an exclusive interview to get more details about his company and its association with the globally-acclaimed Scania brand.
Excerpts:
The Navnit Group is well known for its vehicle dealership in the country. Could you give us a background of your group to start with, and the major automotive brands represented by the group?
The Navnit Group has made rapid strides in the last two decades, and we have partnered a broad spectrum of customers and successfully represented leading Indian and global automotive brands ranging from two-wheelers to the most coveted premium luxury cars – Land Rover, BMW and Rolls Royce, to name few – and subsequently diversified into new initiatives in infrastructure, marine, aviation, adventure sports, construction equipment (with JCB), financial services and insurance broking, the last being the latest.
The Navnit Group is primarily very strong in sales and service of the luxury passenger car segment. How did the idea of working with Scania come up and what gave you the confidence to become Scania’s first dealer partner in India? How is the overall experience of selling trucks compared to selling luxury cars?
In fact, way back in 1982 when Ford trucks came to India, promoted by Simpsons, we proved our best in aftersales and, accordingly, sold 30 trucks in a year by bringing / overcoming the defamation of the product, and thereafter in 1986, we started the EICHER (formerly Mitzubishi) commercial vehicle dealership much before we forayed into the car segment. Our strength lies the after-sales, whether it is car or truck business. As you all know, Scania is a prominent player in trucks and buses globally. In fact, the group approached us first to join hands with it to become its business partner and to be the 3S dealer for Mumbai and the rest of Maharashtra, thanks to our reputation and image we carry in the auto industry. There is vast difference in selling cars and trucks as there will always be repeat buyers in the truck segments and will turnaround into volumes in numbers provided how we extend aftersales service to the customers and maintaining good relationships with them.
What about the current range of Scania products you offer? When did you start your sales operation and how many units have you sold till now? How has the general response been to brand ‘Scania’?
Currently Scania offering for Indian market ranges from long haul tractors to heavy duty pullers in the on-road haulage segment and similarly inter-city coaches ranging from 12 to 14.5 metre super luxury multi-axle variants.
As a matter of fact, Scania is the first truck manufacturer to offer on-road pullers powered by V8 engine in India. Moreover, the Scania team is working more vigorously in the market on various segments and applications and through trials and benchmarking to see the feasibility of inducting a few more variants in the market.
Our relationship with Scania started in 2012 when we were more actively involved in benchmarking the product, and then we started our effective sales operation by 2013. In fact, we are proud to say that Scania is the only OEM in India who took a greater leap by offering highly reliable on-road truck solutions through Fleet Rental, thereby introducing the concept of TOE in the CV industry. We have a secured few orders from top-noche operators for fleet rental deployment.
Needless to say that we have also bagged the biggest order for supply of 100 units of Metrolink inter-city buses to SVLL, the largest fleet operator in India, and entered into the bus segment for the first time.
We understand that the dynamics of operation in the premium segment where Scania operates are distinctly different from the mass-market segment. Could you give us the customer requirements in this space and how do you strive to meet them?
As rightly said, Scania’s area of interest is not in the mass market business. They are focused on those long haul segments where turnaround efficiency, rightly complemented with fuel efficiency, matters a lot for the customer in the present scenario where 55-60 per cent of the operating expenses is for fuel.
Scania is a respectable brand name in the CV industry worldwide, because right from inception its philosophy has been clear: “Never sell trucks to customers….Sell only profitable transport solutions”. In line with this philosophy focused on the special goods and niche segment transportation Scania has been able to offer a competitive cost/km and or cost/ton to our customers with a way ahead superior vehicle like Scania and thereby contributing to our customers’ profitability.
Keeping this in mind Scania worked on bringing in the Lease/Fleet rental model in India where shall best fit into customer operations where uptime, turnaround efficiency, fuel economy and reliability matters a lot.
Scania has adopted its globally-acclaimed lease-model of delivering vehicles to customers. Could you take us through the whole process and explain how it is better than the conventional model?
From the operational and commercial perspective, it is more advantageous for customers as they can afford to run a highly efficient truck like Scania with lower capital investment and the least worry about uptime and maintenance of vehicles.
Because any transport solution offered to the customer is packed with a uptime guarantee, Scania certified drivers, fuel watch programme, in-built FMS and many more benefits which really can revolutionize the CV industry operation.
Before signing in a lease/rental agreement with select customers, Scania undertakes extensive trials on various permutation and combination of routes and applications with the customer to establish the profitable cost/ton and or cost/km. Once the same is proved and established Scania enters into a formal legal agreement for offering solutions for a specified period.
Operating as an exclusive dealer partner for Scania in the western region, how do you take care of aftersales service support for your customers? How many service outlets do you have, apart from your main dealer outlet?
As of now, we have our full-fledged W/S at our Bhiwandi outlet with Scania-trained technicians to offer services to the customers. Besides we have mobile service van fully equipped with tools to attend to breakdowns en route. We are also planning to set up a W/S at Pune to extend services to inter-city buses. We shall gradually expand our wings in other places by keeping the mobile service van with Scania-trained technicians.
Could you share details about your service facilities in terms of the number of bays in the workshop, service workforce and the equipment used for different operations. Do you use only specific brands of equipment approved by Scania? How do you train your service team?
We have 16 bays W/S in our Bhiwandi set-up with Scania-trained technicians and electricians with modern infrastructure and special tools supplied by Scania Sweden. Our techs are trained at the Scania training school in Bangalore where there assembly plant is set up for a week on different modules as scheduled by Scania.
Scania vehicles come with attractive features, especially in terms of technology, which are different from those in other vehicles. How do you train the customers/drivers before the vehicle is delivered, and do you offer them refresher training courses as well?
Scania has its fully modernized state-of-the-art training facility at its factory where driver training is offered as per international standards. Scania is fully aware that a truck with most attractive features is of no use if it goes into wrong hands. So a lot of emphasis has to be laid on driver training and refresher programme.
Please throw some light on the businesses of your existing customers. What are the segments in which they operate and why did they go in for Scania when they have a few other brands in the premium segment to choose from?
As on date we have sold only a few Pullers in Mumbai. Initially we have given them a trial vehicle and they were quite satisfied with the trial output, and gave us an order in spite of having a large fleet of Competition Pullers. Besides we are also negotiating with other customers who are major players in the ODC segment and we are expecting their orders as well in the coming months.
What is your long-term vision with respect to your partnership with Scania and also as the Navnit Group as a whole?
To be associated with Scania as a long-term partner is a great pride for us and is indeed a one more feather on our cap. As a CV segment leader, besides to promote their range of products and to be a market leader and keep both Navnit and Scania flags flying high always and as a Group to expand our horizons and build a dynamic and globally-respected corporation driven by professionalism, values and entrepreneurial energy is our vision.