Corporate News
An employee works at an assembly line at a plant of Indian automaker
Mahindra and Mahindra in Chakan, Mumbai. The firm hopes the aggressive
Africa expansion plan will help spur a 10-fold increase in business over
the next five to seven years. PHOTO | FILE |
REUTERS
By WENDELL ROELF, REUTERS and BD WRITER
Posted Tuesday, June 30 2015 at 11:50
Posted Tuesday, June 30 2015 at 11:50
India's largest utility and tractor producer,
Mahindra and Mahindra, has set up an Africa-focused business unit as it
looks to maintain double-digit growth levels in the continent, the
company said on Tuesday.
With an active presence in 20 African countries, Mahindra
and Mahindra hopes the aggressive expansion will help spur a 10-fold
increase in business over the next five to seven years.
"There is no doubt that the African continent holds
tremendous potential and the new African business unit will place
Mahindra in a very strong position to strengthen its African presence,"
Ashok Thakur, chief executive of Mahindra's local South African unit,
said in a statement.
South Africa will act as a central distribution
channel for all products manufactured within the group, including
utility vehicles, tractors and trucks.
Thakur will lead the newly-established continental
business unit, based in South Africa, with additional business hubs
planned for Kenya, Nigeria and Egypt.
Re-entry
The firm will, however, have to shake off an
unsavoury reputation it acquired in Kenya after a deal to supply the
Kenya Police with vehicles in the 1990s was mired in controversy.
The vehicle manufacturer had supplied the Kenya
Police with about 1,000 Mahindra Jeeps but left the Kenyan market soon
after in what the firm said was an ‘unsuccessful strategy.’
The firm returned to the Kenyan market in 2012
through Xylon Motors, a subsidiary of Simba Corporation, to sell its
range of sports utility vehicles (SUV) and commercial vehicles.
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