Mahindra Farm Equipment Sector (FES), which gave the country its first nano tractor —- the 15bhp Yuvraj —- will look at further contract manufacturing opportunities as the product is made available across the country, Gautam Nagwekar, chief executive officer, FES said on Thursday.
Currently, Rajkot-based Deepak Diesel Pvt Ltd is exclusively manufacturing Yuvraj to be sold in Gujarat. The tractor is being tested in small numbers in the state and will be sold across the country in 16-18 months.
Anjani Kumar Choudhari, president, FES, said the decision to contract-manufacture Yuvraj was made when the very business model was conceived. “It makes sense to do this as we will save on the manufacturing, labour and logistics cost. We are also looking at sourcing low-cost components for the tractor,”
Choudhari added.
Besides third-party manufacturing, FES is aggressively looking at the second hand tractor market. It has in place the Mahindra Vishwas Centres where farmers can sell their tractors.
“We currently have 125 outlets, and this number will grow significantly as we see a huge growth opportunity in this segment. We will close this financial year by selling around 7,000 second hand tractors,” Nagwekar said.
The company is also conducting a pilot study for renting out tractors.
Choudhari said the company is a few thousand units short of becoming the global leader in tractors. Together, the Mahindra brand, Swaraj tractors and overseas subsidiaries will close the year with 1.7 lakh tractors. In fact, the Mahindra brand alone has sold one lakh tractors already. Mahindra FES has a 42% market share in tractors. Choudhari is confident that his company will beat the expected market growth of 25% next year, riding on Yuvraj sales. In fact, it expects to sell 40,000-50,000 Yuvraj tractors in 4-5 years.
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