Ashok Leyland, the flagship of the Hinduja Group, which recently began selling its vehicles in newer markets such as Latin America, Ukraine and Russia, is now looking for overseas partners to give a fillip to its exports. This was announced by the company's managing director Vinod Dasari during the occasion of the inauguration of a new state-of-the-art dealership in Pune called My Auto World Ashok Leyland on March 2, 2012. Ashok Leyland has exported 11,200 units till the end of February 2012 and expects to end the fiscal at exports accounting for 15 per cent of the total sales. "Buses currently account for around 70 per cent of our overseas sales," Dasari said.

The company's strategy is to start out with buses in newer markets. "When the local network gets used to our aggregates, and a service infrastructure is established, we can look at exporting trucks there," he said, adding that while most buses are sent as CBUs, the company is also scouting for partnerships to push exports, including in areas like bus-body building. Among the other initiatives on the cards is an attempt to shed the company's image as a maker of age-old products with a strong presence only in the southern part of India. "Over 65 per cent of our products are less than three years old, over two-thirds of the employees are less than 35, and sales outside of south India are over 50 per cent," Dasari said.

The company will soon appoint a brand ambassador and also launch an advertisement campaign to spread this message. Meanwhile, the new dealership, the second in the city, also marks the company's 400th full service outlet in the country. The new dealership, strategically located on NH4, Tathawade, Taluka Mulshi, Pune, is the single biggest facility in Maharashtra, spread over 70,000 sq feet with 24 service bays equipped with modern tools, computerised machines and sophisticated infrastructure. "Our renewed focus on the northern and western markets has started to bear fruit," commented Dasari. "We have more outlets in the north than in the south and with our manufacturing facility at Pantnagar now at full throttle, we are confident of meeting the demands from these markets adequately and promptly," he added.

According to Dasari, Maharashtra has been fast gaining importance as a key manufacturing hub with substantial freight movement. "Ashok Leyland is now present in every district of Maharashtra with full service facility. Not only have the numbers increased but we have ensured that there is a contact point every 75 kms on major corridors so that we are always close to our customers," Dasari claimed. This is a part of its TatkaAL initiative whereby the company guarantees reaching a customer anywhere on the golden quadrilateral or on the north-south, east-west corridors within four hours and restoration of vehicle in 48 hours. "We have so far trained and developed over 16,000 mechanics and nearly 5,400 retailers across the country to service our customers better," Dasari added.