Fiat India will now focus its attention on developing its own sales network by March 2013 after it severed ties with Tata Motors earlier this year. Currently Fiat vehicles are sold from 174 joint outlets across 126 cities. The Italian manufacturer hopes to have 80 solo dealerships in 67 cities by March to re-establish the brand and improve sales.
Ravi G Bhatia, VP (commercial) for Fiat India Automobiles Ltd (Fial) said the company was currently in the process of re-structuring its products as well as the distribution network to match the sales that the company achieved globally. He added that the company was going to hire 100 employees to manage its sales and distribution network in India.
The company, which has a 0.39 per cent market share, suffered dismal sales of just 472 cars in August and 4061 cars in the first five months of the year. The company hopes that the re-structuring process will garner it a 10 fold increase in fortunes over the next few years. Despite severing sales ties with Tata, both companies still jointly manufacture cars from the same facility and share engines as well.
