ACT India, a division of Sicagen India Ltd., has been a main thrust for Tata Motors in Tamil Nadu. ACT, established in March 1997, has taken rapid strides over the last 15 years to become Tata Motors’ second largest dealer in Tamil Nadu and also one of its leading dealers on a national scale. The company offers the complete range of Tata Motors commercial vehicles and boasts of having established the latter’s first-ever platinum set-up in the country. Motorindia spoke to Mr. Devidas Mali, Chief Operating Officer, and Mr. Vaduganathan. S, General Manager, ACT India, to find out more.
ACT India is part of the Sicagen Group which is into the retail trading business in different fields. The Group’s vision is focused on direct customer relationship, which involves regular touch with the end-user of the products, in order to give them the best-user experience. ACT India has been established in line with the Group’s vision.
ACT is present across 11 districts in Tamil Nadu with its seven 3S facilities located in Chennai, Ambattur, Iyyapanthangal, Trichy, Tanjore, Mayiladuthurai and Kumbakonam. It also has 12 sales touch points located strategically across the State. ACT deals with the entire range of Tata Motors CVs starting from the 0.5 T Ace to the 49 T Prima which gives it very good sales numbers every year. The dealer outfit has sold over 50,000 vehicles since inception, with around 7,953 of them being sold in 2012-13. ACT has a salesforce of over 200 persons and a technical service team of more than 300 people.
Though FY13 was a tough year for the commercial vehicle segment, ACT was able to manage a good number, thanks to the volumes in the LCV segment. “The M&HCV segments have crashed this year. The entire automotive industry is down due to the general economic slowdown. Since infrastructure development is slow, the construction segment is not moving that well. The rise in interest and inventory costs is also a big challenge. However, the S&LCV segments continue to do well, which is an encouraging sign”, says Mr. Devidas Mali.
Demand growth
The Indian commercial vehicle industry is witnessing a major shift driven by the development of high-speed national highways. This has resulted in a rise in demand for larger multi-axle vehicles over more common medium and heavy trucks. It has also resulted in a basic change in the country’s logistics model from ‘point-to-point’ to ‘hub-and-spoke’. The flip-side of the hub-and-spoke model is the resurgence in demand for small and light commercial vehicles which has led to the rise of a whole new ‘Last Mile’ segment.
The employment guarantee schemes of the Government are basically finding success by providing road-building work to the rural poor. One positive fall-out of the schemes is improvement of roads in rural India which has created a strong demand for economical rural commercial and passenger vehicles, resulting in exponential growth is sales of products like the Ace and Magic.
In addition to the steady sales in the SCV & LCV segments, there has been encouraging demand in particular application segments for the heavy vehicles as well. While demand has risen in the cement and steel segments since December, the petroleum tanker segment has been a major growth driver for ACT which recently bagged a 20 per cent share from a recent tender for 500 tankers. ACT’s customer base includes operators in various industry segments, including coal, cement, fertilizers and steel, apart from retail vendors, high-income individuals and corporates, including the hospitality industry.
In the bus segment, the company expects more than 30 per cent share from the recent tender for 3,000 buses from the Tamil Nadu Government. Though the contribution of buses to its annual sales in terms of numbers was only around 400 last year, ACT expects the numbers to grow in the coming year, hopeful of good growth across different segments in the bus industry.
Top priority for service
ACT is rated highly in the market for its service quality. The company has constantly upgraded its service facilities and capabilities over time in order to be able to meet the growing expectations of customers in terms of quality, cost and timing.
“We believe that with the deeper penetration of motor insurance the quality of service in rural areas too can be streamlined. Today, these markets rely on road-side sheds and garages for repair. We are trying to ensure that we first lead our market in service, and then follow it up with sales”, says Mr. Vaduganathan.
ACT’s new facility at Kumbakonam is an example of its commitment to improving the service standards in rural areas. The company strictly adheres to Tata Motors’ quality standards when it comes to facilities, equipment and training associated with service.
As for the future, ACT’s focus will remain on the rural and semi-urban markets of Tamil Nadu in which consumer-spend is only beginning to pick up. Besides, with both the State and Centre going to polls this fiscal year, demand for small commercial vehicles is bound to rise tremendously, opine the ACT duo.
Service will be another major area of focus for ACT as part of its continuous efforts to raise the bar on the service front. ACT has serviced over 20,000 vehicles since inception with on-site service and 24×7 breakdown assistance as part of its service support. ACT is working on further enhancing the customer experience through more reliable and better quality and efficient service routines. In three years’ time, it aspires to stake the claim for Tata Motors’ largest dealership in Tamil Nadu.
Stand-out achievements:
National Sales Award for Tata Magic in FY11
National Service Award for FY12
India’s first Tata Ace customer got his vehicle from ACT India in 2005