In an interaction with PTI, Firodia stated that the company remains focused on its core business of providing shared mobility solutions with a range of light commercial and multi-purpose vehicles – including Traveler and Urbania platforms, for sectors such as education, healthcare and tourism.
Moreover, the company is targeting aggressive growth in the defense segment, he added.”We now have a market share of over 70 percent in the Traveler segment. All these platforms, Monobus or Traveler or Urbania, these segments are growing for us. They have been a nice contributor for us, both in terms of revenue in the domestic market and also in terms of generating very strong business results,” Firodia said.
“So now that we have achieved the position of being India’s largest player, our ambition is to leverage our core, which is mainly shared mobility solutions, and play internationally,” he added. The company, which exports to around 20 countries, mainly in the Gulf region, is now targeting more markets in Latin America and Africa to fuel its next phase of growth. “With Urbania and the Traveler, we are now entering multiple international markets in a very calibrated and focused manner. We are actually, right now, playing in almost more than 20 markets, and this year we will add another five foreign markets. We see a lot of opportunity in the international markets with these product platforms,” ​​said Firodia.
The product platforms undergo certain changes and upgrades to qualify for the local, international market in terms of their regulatory requirements or in terms of their homologation requirements, he added.
Firodia noted that export revenues are currently small, but in terms of potential in the future, the export markets will provide the company with similar opportunities in terms of numbers as the domestic market.
“Of course, that won’t happen overnight, it will take time. The ambition is clearly to move in that direction, to say that at least 20-30 percent of our volume should come from export markets soon,” Firodia said.
He noted that the company’s board has approved Rs 2,000 crore investments over the next three years to invest across the value chain, with around Rs 150 crore earmarked for the digitalization initiative alone.
“Then of course we have several initiatives. There is capacity increase, there are product upgrades that we will come up with. The Traveler EV ambulance is ready. So investments are taking place everywhere, building our network, training and retraining our employees, etc.,” says Firodia.
When asked about the passenger car segment, he noted that the company has no plans to expand vertically and wants to enhance the role of its Gurkha SUV in the defense sector and export markets.
“It is a hardcore off-roader and so it operates in a very niche segment and we have a very strong position. We are selling the light strike vehicle to the Indian Armed Forces, which is a special avatar of the Gurkha. We are also pursuing several other contracts for different applications with the Armed Forces, and it is going to export markets,” Firodia said.
There is still a lot of potential for the company to capitalize on these segments, he said.
“So there is no point in digressing and losing focus and saying let’s make a passenger car. It is so difficult to achieve success in the passenger car market in India,” Firodia noted.
He shared details about new product developments and stated that the Traveler Electric ambulance is ready and work is underway on the electric version of Urbania.
“The transition to EV in this segment is significantly low, but we will be ready with the product very soon. So as soon as the demand comes in, we will be ready,” he added.
Force Motors reported its highest ever profit in the second quarter at Rs 350 crore, doubling year-on-year. Revenue rose 8 percent year-on-year to Rs 2,106 crore in the July-September quarter.
Firodia said the company has narrowed its focus, divested certain products and exited certain markets as it strives for sustainable profitable growth.
“We took a deep dive to understand what our core is, and then decided to leverage our core. With all these initiatives and then to improve efficiencies across the organization, we’ve done a lot of work over the last three to four years to get our material costs under control and it’s starting to pay off,” he added.
The company operates five manufacturing units across India and employs more than 10,000 people.
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