Maruti Suzuki sales look up in Jan 2009

After an extremely bad phase with regard to sales numbers, Maruti Suzuki has made a turnaround by posting 5.39 per cent rise in its sales during January 2009. The company which had seen its net sales take a dip marginally by 1.03 percent to Rs. 46,258 million last quarter.

The new January numbers comes as pleasant statistics for the car maker as it proved that it has already bucked three months of consecutive decline in sales. According to Maruti Suzuki India, the car maker sold a total of 71,779 vehicles last month. This against as many as 68,107 units a year ago. It may be seen that post-September 2008, Maruti Suzuki India’s sales had been nose-diving. According to sources, the last time it posted the highest sales was in March 2007, when it had seen as may as 71,772 units. Domestic sales accounted for as many as 67,005 cars, as against 63,459 units in the same month the previous year.

The company also made good headway on the exports front with exports growing by 2.71 per cent at 4,774 units in January, as against 4,648 units in the corresponding month last year. While the sale of its M800 model rose by 1.85 per cent at 5,571 units against 5,470 units last year, the A2 segment, which has under it the recently-launched A-Star, Alto, Zen Estilo, Swift and Wagon R, saw sales grow to 46,899 units against 45,957 units. The A3 segment, in the meantime, saw a two-fold growth selling 6,590 units as against 2,939 units last year.

It may be recalled that the car maker which made public its financial results for the period ending December 2008, said it clocked a drop in standalone net profit for the quarter ended December 2008. The reason said then was that high raw material costs and lower sales volume affected growth. Profit plummeted by 54.27 per cent to Rs. 2,135.70 million from Rs. 4,670.40 million in the same quarter previous year, it had said.