Then comes his Club Mahindra odyssey, which has earned an equal proportion of criticism as it has won praises in the market. At present, the company boasts of high-occupancy rates in all its resorts, across the year, which sounds encouraging, but this road too has bumps as a former executive points out, “For Club Mahindra, the challenge is the ability to find new holiday destinations and maintain financial discipline while keeping enough inventory of rooms. Also, there are huge options in leisure for today’s consumer; they need to keep this in mind.”
With an outlay of Rs.1 billion, the group also ventured into the retail space in the first month of 2010. The entry missed the public eye, largely due to the lack of fanfare at the launch of the two ‘niche’ lifestyle stores in Ludhiana and Ahmedabad. The chain of two stores which has been branded as ‘Mom & Me’, caters to the needs of mothers and infants. Though the concept of catering to a niche segment (largely based on the idea behind the world renowned UK-based iconic retail chain ‘Mothercare’) sounds exciting, it is to be noted that the Indian consumer hasn’t evolved as much as it appears when you walk through the huge malls that flaunt global brands. One also has to see that the group has opened a retail venture that caters to a niche, when the buzzwords doing the rounds in the sector at present are hypermarts and supermarts. Clearly, the rate and scale of Mahindra’s retail expansion will depend on the feedback from customers, and our guess is – he’ll hold back on this one!
For now though, Mahindra has been intelligent enough not to have made billion dollar blunders like some few of his contemporaries when it comes to spreading his business to newer sectors. But at the same time, maintaining caution, he should continue focussing on his cash cow automotive business. The group has also done well to enter the two-wheeler segment in a price sensitive market in 2009 by acquiring the assets of the troubled Kinetic Motors (Anoop Mathur, CEO, Two wheelers, M&M, tells B&E that his plans for the Indian market in 2010 are extremely bullish), while at the same time, its commercial vehicles segment, in alliance with Navistar, will give the company a more comprehensive line-up of products for the Indian market. A Mahindra competitor, Pankaj Dubey, National Business Head, Yamaha India, accepts his trepidations to B&E, “The Mahindra Group has done well in all segments that it has tried its hands on. With the growing focus on the two-wheeler segment, Mahindra will surely be a tough competitor...” Even during the past quarter, the automotive and farm equipment sectors combine, accounted for 60% of the Mahindra group’s revenues of Rs.76 billion.
With an outlay of Rs.1 billion, the group also ventured into the retail space in the first month of 2010. The entry missed the public eye, largely due to the lack of fanfare at the launch of the two ‘niche’ lifestyle stores in Ludhiana and Ahmedabad. The chain of two stores which has been branded as ‘Mom & Me’, caters to the needs of mothers and infants. Though the concept of catering to a niche segment (largely based on the idea behind the world renowned UK-based iconic retail chain ‘Mothercare’) sounds exciting, it is to be noted that the Indian consumer hasn’t evolved as much as it appears when you walk through the huge malls that flaunt global brands. One also has to see that the group has opened a retail venture that caters to a niche, when the buzzwords doing the rounds in the sector at present are hypermarts and supermarts. Clearly, the rate and scale of Mahindra’s retail expansion will depend on the feedback from customers, and our guess is – he’ll hold back on this one!
For now though, Mahindra has been intelligent enough not to have made billion dollar blunders like some few of his contemporaries when it comes to spreading his business to newer sectors. But at the same time, maintaining caution, he should continue focussing on his cash cow automotive business. The group has also done well to enter the two-wheeler segment in a price sensitive market in 2009 by acquiring the assets of the troubled Kinetic Motors (Anoop Mathur, CEO, Two wheelers, M&M, tells B&E that his plans for the Indian market in 2010 are extremely bullish), while at the same time, its commercial vehicles segment, in alliance with Navistar, will give the company a more comprehensive line-up of products for the Indian market. A Mahindra competitor, Pankaj Dubey, National Business Head, Yamaha India, accepts his trepidations to B&E, “The Mahindra Group has done well in all segments that it has tried its hands on. With the growing focus on the two-wheeler segment, Mahindra will surely be a tough competitor...” Even during the past quarter, the automotive and farm equipment sectors combine, accounted for 60% of the Mahindra group’s revenues of Rs.76 billion.
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