Managing Director of Renault India sets high targets for the company

Managing Director (MD), Renault India, Marc Nassif is striving hard to take Indian subsidiary of the French based car maker to new heights, from its existing 13th position with 0.24 per cent share in the Indian auto market. The existing MD, who joined the company as an engineering trainee has served the car maker in Mexico, France, Spain and Brazil. He is planning to increase the sales volume of the car maker by 1 lac units by somewhere between 2013 and 2014 and gain a market share of 5 per cent within a year.

Nassif said, “Renault India has a great product plan. The challenge will be to scale up the organisation, dealerships and deliver 1,00,000 vehicles a year. India needs to be among the top 10 markets for Renault by 2013.”

The targets set by the MD are quite a feat, since Renault India clocked sales of less than 4,000 units in last fiscal. However, the company is optimistic about selling 30,000 units by the end of current financial year. The journey for the company in India so far has been a bumpy ride, which took its toll on Nassif as well, who was brought in to spearhead the Indian operations back in 2007. Renault ventured in to Indian auto market in a partnership with Mahindra & Mahindra in the same year, which broke up within just two years. The fallout between two auto makers caused the French company to start afresh in India.

Renault added three models to its Indian portfolio ever since, including the Koleos and Fluence in high-end segment and the Pulse hatchback in mass market segment. However, these models have not lived up to the expectations of car maker as they failed to enhance the company’s brand recall in the country.

Nassif points out that he has been hearing consumers pronounce the brand name as 'Renolt' rather than 'Renaul', which is the French pronunciation for the term wherein ’t’ is silent. He says that its does not bother him any more as long as their models sell.

He has high hopes on the recently launched Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) Duster to turn the tide in company’s favour. The next move by the car maker will be to increase its volume with the fifth launch lined-up for 2012, Scala sedan, which is scheduled to be released somewhere near Diwali. It would be interesting to see if the Duster and the Scala works for the benefit of Renault and if the company is able to achieve its anticipated target; Nassif on the other hand is quite confident.