Robust market demand drives Leyland to higher growth

Chennai, May 4 (UNI) Aided by a robust market demand all through the year, Ashok Leyland, the flagship company of the Hinduja Group, has registered a turnover of Rs 83,047.17 million during 2006-07.

This reflected a 37 per cent growth over the last fiscal's turnover of Rs 60,531.08 million, Company Manging Director R Seshasayee told reporters here today.

The Net profit also rose by 35 per cent to touch Rs 4,413 million as against Rs 3,273 million last year.

The Company's Gross Operating Margin moved up by 30 per cent, to Rs 7,026.85 million (Rs 5,400.70 million).

He said there was a 34 per cent improvement in profit before tax of Rs 6,045.06 million (Rs 4,523 million), after depreciation of Rs 1,505.74 million (Rs 1,260.06 million), and an extra ordinary item -- an expenditure of Rs 130.76 million (Rs 84.51 million) for VRS compensation amortised.

In 2005-06, there was a one-time extra ordinary gain of Rs 301.66 million on the sales of DCU to Ennore Foundries.

"Our figures this year reflect how well we rode the boom in the market," Mr Seshasayee said.

''Significantly, this is the second consecutive year we improved our market share when total industry volume grew. We fielded products that improved customer profitability and supported them with a host of value-added services. We fully utilized our enhanced capacities and helped suppliers realize theirs through de-bottle necking. We reduced our operating cost by 200 basis points, thanks to Gemba initiatives", he added.

He said during 2006-07, the Company's total sales volume reached an all-time high of 83,094 vehicles (61,655 vehicles), a rise of 35 per cent and market share in the medium and heavy commercial vehicle segment rose by 0.8 per cent to 28 per cent.

The integrated manufacturing plant being set up at Pantnagar in Uttaranchal, would become operational by March 2010 to touch a total sales volume of 160,000 vehicles.

The company was planning to touch 100,000 mark by the end of this current fiscal, he added.

As part of the thrust to offer fully built vehicles, a few buses and trucks were in the pipeline. The Company is targeting a share of the airport bus market and had lined up three buses under the brand name Avion for this segment. In the area of trucks, the 4921, the 3135 Tipper and the 2518 Mining Tipper vehicles were on the anvil.

UNI