Tata Motors takes on competition in South with exclusive bus dealership

Chennai: As one of the strategies to garner higher market share in the bus segment in the south and to take on Ashok Leyland Ltd, commercial vehicle major Tata Motors Ltd on Friday came out with BusZone, an exclusive dealership for buses.

"The needs of a bus customer are entirely different from that of a truck buyer. In order to cater to the bus customer in an exclusive manner we have launched the BusZone," executive director, commercial vehicle business unit, Ravi Pisharody, told reporters here.

"This is one of the strategies to take on Ashok Leyland in the southern bus market. South will be a big focus for BusZones," he added.

He said the company does not have any specific number of BusZones to be opened within a specific time frame.

According to Pisharody, launching BusZone does not mean the company is rejigging its distribution network whereby Tata buses would be sold only though them.

"There are certain markets that would not need an exclusive dealerships for buses," he added while agreeing that such exclusive bus dealership may poach into the business of other dealers selling trucks and buses.

However he added the truck dealers will not be losing much as buses account for around 10 percent of their total business.

According to Pisharody, Tata Motors will be adding 30 more dealers to its existing 1,800 sales and service touch points across the country in next six to twelve months.

Speaking about the bus market, commercial vehicles unit's regional manager, south, Mukund Krishnamurthy said there is good growth potential for buses from tier 2 and 3 cities.

He said the implementation of standards for bus body builders will result in higher demand for fully-built buses.

According to Krishnamurthy, there is good growth from rural areas for school buses.