Addressing its dealers at their annual meeting in Bangkok on Monday, MSI Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) managing director and CEO Shinzo Nakanishi said: "My concern is about the quality of our growth. Although we achieved good overall national numbers, the region-wise and model-wise performance was not uniform. We relied mostly on Dzire and Swift to power our growth."
The company's performance in many other models was not up to the mark, he added. "The wide range of models and our national presence are competitive advantages for us. We have to take full benefit of these competitive advantages and focus on all models and all regions.
Without improvement in these areas, we may be able to grow for one or two years, but we will face a problem in the long term," Nakanishi said.
Last fiscal, the company recorded a rise of 3.57 per cent in its sales at 7,92,167 units compared with 7,64,842 units in the previous fiscal. In April, 2009, MSI sold 71,748 units as against 62,336 units in the year-ago period, a growth of 15.10 per cent.
Maruti Suzuki, however, did not share the sales figures of individual models. Commenting on the road ahead, Nakanishi said MSI had identified new areas of growth during the last financial year and would continue to strengthen those areas.
"Last year, we identified new opportunities in the rural market and government employees. Those efforts are being strengthened and will further power our growth this year," he added.
Nakanishi further said that irrespective of economic and market situations in the country, MSI would have to sell "much more than competition".
