Maruti Suzuki India has announced that Nexa, its new automotive sales channel to sell its premium car models, has completed its first year of operations. For the carmaker, which essentially has been known as a mass-market car manufacturer, setting up Nexa was a major initiative. In July last year, the company flagged off its premium Nexa showrooms which displayed the all-new S-Cross crossover.

According to Kenichi Ayukawa, MD and CEO, Maruti Suzuki India, the opening up of the Nexa retail outlets is in line with the carmaker’s vision to achieve its mid-term goal of two million annual sales by 2020.

By the time the S-cross was launched on August 5, 35-40 Nexa premium retail outlets had sprung up across the country, set-up by existing Maruti dealers who made the investments in the infrastructure and processes. Since then, over the next 12 months, the Nexa network has been ramped up to 150 across 94 cities in India and has a strong team of over 3,500 relationship managers.

Maruti Suzuki plans to expand the number of Nexa outlets to 250 by March 2017. The premium sales network is expected to contribute 15 percent of the carmaker’s company sales by 2020, which translates to 3,00,000 cars per annum through Nexa. At present, the cars sold through Nexa are the S-cross and the Baleno premium hatchback. While the customer response to the S-cross crossover has been somewhat muted, the striking-looking Baleno has been a runaway success and has given Nexa showrooms plenty of customer footfalls.

Till end-June 2016, the S-cross had sold a total of 28,795 units and the Baleno 71,230 units, which add up to 1,00,025 units. While the Baleno has averaged sales of 7,914 units a month, the S-cross has a monthly sales average of 2,399 units.

The road ahead

Elaborating on the road ahead for the Nexa network, RS Kalsi, executive director (Marketing & Sales), Maruti Suzuki India said, “To further enhance the purchase and ownership experience, we plan to provide customers enriching experiences beyond the showroom as well. We will curate new experiences around fashion and lifestyle, music and travel. These experiences will touch the lives of customers through international music festivals, fashion/styling sessions and long-distance drives. Rather than limit ourselves to selling cars, our aim is to forge relationships over the period of ownership.”