Maruti sales dip by 38% in Oct

NEW DELHI, NOV 2: Maruti Udyog Ltd (MUL) today reported a 38.05 per cent drop in sales at 17,670 cars during October largely due to produc...

NEW DELHI, NOV 2: Maruti Udyog Ltd (MUL) today reported a 38.05 per cent drop in sales at 17,670 cars during October largely due to production loss on account of a 45-day old labour unrest in the company. The company sold 28,526 units in October 1999.

Sales of Maruti’s bread and butter`800CC’ model fell by.7 per cent to 8,775 units during October from 15,581 units in the year ago month. The company sold 3,022 of the premium small car `Zen’, down 52.6 per cent, as against 6,382 units in October 1999.

Maruti’s sales in the mid-size segment (Esteem and Baleno cars) were down by 50.7 per cent at 565 units during the review month compared to 1,147 Esteem cars in the same month last year. Omni sales stood at 2,934 units during October, down 42.1 per cent, as against 5,069 sold last year.

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Sales of `Wagon-R’ and Alto were recorded at 521 units and 1,853 units respectively during the reference month.

Says MUL Managing Director Jagdish Khattar: "Despite the festival season, the car market, as the market for other consumer durables, remained sluggish in the month of October. The domestic car market witnessed a drop of about 38 per cent as compared to the previous month".

Maruti said the production at the company’s Gurgaon plant continued to rise with 1,200 vehicles produced on November 1 which was expected to revive the car market out of its present sluggishness.

It said more employees were returning to work which stood at 3,717 on November 1 as the new incentive scheme notified by the management was drawing positive response from a large number of workers.