PSA Peugeot-Citroen is aiming to return to the Indian market under its ‘Back in the Race’ growth strategy. The French automaker is the only major player that does not have a presence in India and has already tried twice. Once in 1990s with the Premier Group and then again in 2011 by itself but was forced to abandon both due to lack of success and bad economic conditions respectively.
It has already established a team in Pune to assess the market once again and according to a report from Financial Express, it is considering contract manufacturing in a bid to keep its costs down. The report also suggests that it may set up a plant in Tamil Nadu or Maharashtra with its Chinese investor Dongfeng, who along with French Government invested a billion Euros in the manufacturer last year.
The company has also said that one of its business objectives is to trigger development in the next BRIC market (which is India) and ensure that supply and development for these markets is supplied by regional players. It has also appointed former Nissan executive Emmanuel Delay as the operational director for India-Pacific zone.
It will be a hard task for Peugeot to make its presence felt in the Indian market due to pre conceived notions about the brand with the Indian consumers. However, the French automaker has quite a few exciting products across various segments and combined with the French’s funky styling on its cars, there may be hope yet for Peugeot in India once again.
Source: FE
