Toyota Kirloskar Motor today announced that the company sold a total of 707 units in the month of May 2021, amidst the prevailing restrictions & sporadic lockdowns in several parts of the country. Even before the state-wide lockdown was declared in Karnataka, TKM had already announced its annual maintenance shutdown at its plant in Bidadi, starting on the 26th of April until the 14th of May, so as to enhance its operational efficiencies. This further added to the number of non-production days at it’s plant in Bidadi. For reference, TKM had reported wholesales of 1639 units in the month of May 2020 and 9622 units in the month of April 2021. The cumulative wholesales of TKM in the first five months of 2021, stands at 50,531 units when compared to 24,820 units sold in the corresponding period last year, thereby registering a growth of 104%.
Commenting on the situation, Mr. Naveen Soni, Sr. Vice President, TKM said,
“Last month witnessed no production at our plants in Bidadi as well as minimal sales owing to the much needed restrictions & sporadic lockdowns in different parts of the country. Hence comparing last month’s performance to that of May 2020 would be highly skewed, as May 2020 had witnessed a gradual restart of both operations and sales. More so for TKM, as even before the restrictions were announced in Karnataka, we were well within our planned annual maintenance shutdown, thereby adding onto the number of non-production days.
Having said that, the overall market situation as well as consumer sentiments are better than May 2020. In fact, we have even registered a 104% growth in cumulative wholesales clocked from January to May in 2021, when compared to the same period last year. We also anticipate that factors like ‘pent up demand’ and the demand for personal mobility will continue to be quite significant once the markets open as consumers will want to own their vehicles instead of using shared or public mobility options. A testimony to this is the fact that we have a very healthy number of pending orders and there has been no significant order cancellation against the orders. However, we will be able to take a better stock of the situation once the restrictions are relaxed.
On the manufacturing side, we are trying to ensure that all possible measures & preparations are made to resume production as soon as the lockdown is withdrawn, so as to be able to cater to the immediate mobility needs of our customers at the earliest. Moreover, we are also focusing on vaccinating our employees as well as our dealer staff so as to ensure lower risk & severity of infections, once the markets open. More than anything else, we want our workforces to be safe and hence we are channelizing our synergies to drive vaccination camps for our employees at the plant as well as for our dealer staff at various dealership locations across the country”,
he concluded.
