MAN is a global leader in Commercial Vehicle Industry. MAN Trucks India started operations in India in 2006 as a joint venture with Force Motors. In 2012, the MAN Truck & Bus AG takeover the Joint Venture in 2012 which was expected. Currently MAN sold more than 25,000 units since 2006.

Eventually with the takeover of the joint venture, MAN Trucks India Pvt. Ltd became a wholly owned subsidiary of MAN Truck & Bus AG in 2012. For Shorty time MAN opened its subsidiary during JV with Force Motors but it was closed in a short time.

MAN supplied SHAKTIMAN trucks to Indian Army. It shows the quality of product and reliability.

MAN India is having wide range of product for Indian market. The company is having potential to be game changer in Heavy Truck and Premium Bus segment. The company is leader in Engine Technology. The CLA product range is having MAN D series engine. The vehicle architecture is specially designed for Indian operation. These products range was launched in Budget segment. This segment has been created by MAN in India.

ACG found more than 80 percent customers are satisfied with product quality and its performance and like to recommend to another fleet owner also.

The product performance is excellent specially in Tipper and Special Application category. Trucks are robust, better payload capacity and TCO Analysis. The products are best fit for mining, Construction, ODC, Special Application, and long-distance market load.

Even after good product range, company could not take advantages and penetrate the market. There are few steps need to be taken to become the market leader. Company went through major organization changes in India and global level after becoming part of Volkswagen Group.

ACG done detail study on MAN Trucks India and cover following:

• MAN group overview
• MAN Journey in India
• MAN Strength and Weakness Analysis – Before and After JV
• Premium Truck and Bus Market overview for TG.. product range
• MAN Customer segment Analysis
• Why MAN entered in India with Joint Venture with Force Motors and why MAN AG take over JV
• Joint Venture Detail Analysis and Conclusion
• Indian Truck Analysis overview
• Joint Venture Issues and its impact on MAN operation in India
• Tipper, ODC, Tractor, Rigid Haulage and Special Application product and Sales & Production Analysis
• Market Share Analysis
• Model wise (CLA) Sales and Production Analysis – Trend and Forecast 2023
• Model wise (CLA) – Product Portfolio changes since 2006 to 2017
• Model wise (CLA) Pricing and Discount Analysis since 2006 to 2017
• Market Share Analysis
• Product Matrix Analysis
• MAN Best Models – Application wise
• Products specs, features and Comparison for India and Export Market
• Product Position in each segment
• MAN Customers
• Model wise TCO Analysis
• Competitor Analysis
• Brand perception and position
• CLA range – Model wise Product life cycle
• Customer expectation price of vehicle
• Financiers Feedback
• Dealer Network Analysis
• Organization structure since 2006
• Key Persons since 2006
• Plant Information – Capacity, Location, MAN power
• Vendor Strategy
• Export plan
• Intercultural Analysis
• How Truck can take advantages of changing scenario of new regulation in India
• Marketing activities analysis – Digital, Exhibition, PR activities, and other
• ACG recommendation

The post MAN India Truck Report appeared first on Autobei Consulting Group.

One of the main constituents of the above mentioned case study involves Dachauer Straße 667, 80995 München Germany, MAN in their Pune office. One of the main issues faced by operations in India was that of Proper coordination, especially with respect to working hours. MAN office was closed on weekends and stays open during weekdays, but MAN Force Motors was closed on Thursdays. Technically, for three days in a week there is no communication between MAN Munich and MAN Force Pune office in India. In the intermediary four days, there was also the existing problem of the time difference of 3-4 hours that exist between India and Germany. The production unit is housed in Pithampur whereas the head office is placed in Pune, making the current scenario an entangled map of business.

When the year of 2000 dawned, MAN was known globally and shortly after this the management decided to collaborate and work towards creating a solid vision and planning towards achieving it. The 9 year tenure initiated with three new ventures whose business models were extended to emerging markets. First, CNHTC China was started. Then Volkswagen’s Brazil Commercial Vehicle Business was purchased. Also, JV was established with Force Motors in India. They established that BRIC would be their first priority. Though MAN was able to create a global impact as a brand, they were incapable of creating a similar impact in India too. One of the significant questions asked was why MAN was not able to make it’s presence matter in India.

Once, Force Motors tried fitting one of its most notable products, the Tempo Traveler with a Mercedes Engine and this yielded surprisingly good results. Looking at the scenario as an opportunity, Force Motors sought to MAN Munich and strike a deal which questions the possibility of combining their products with MAN’s engines and parallely, MAN was seeking an Indian partner to secure its entrance into India. An understanding was reached and the duo successfully established MAN FORCE Motors Ltd in 2006 with Mr. Schumacker appointed as the first executive in India. Mr. Schumacker had worked on developing the military vehicle named   “SHAKTIMAN”

This joint venture aimed to combine the technological expertise and MAN ‘s reputation as a global brand with the local market knowledge of Force Motors and their network to secure a place in the Indian market for MAN and provide a means of expanding business for Force Motors.

However, this understanding was shortlived when there arose conflicts between the two with MAN drifting off to open a separate office in Mumbai in the MAN Diesel facility. This office in Mumbai was established with help of Mr. Atul Chandel and Mr. Xavier Polster from MAN Munich and later on, they were joined by Mr. Neundlinger from China. They planned to separately commence operations to carry on with the sale of premium TGX/TGA-WW products. However after a period of time due to various reasons, the office in Mumbai was shut down.

MAN Trucks India Pvt Ltd saw the commencement of their operation under the name, “MAN FORCE TRUCKS Pvt Ltd” having collaborated with Force Motors as a part of a joint venture, India in the year 2006.

But, in the year 2011 in the event of failure of this joint venture, MAN Trucks India Pvt. Ltd. This was fully owned as a subsidiary of MAN Truck & Bus AG, Germany.  The headquarters was placed this time in Pune while the production plant was housed all the way in a small town in the state of Madhya Pradesh, Pithampur with over 1000 employees.

In the course of five years when MAN Force, the joint venture was riding high, the customers were engulfed in its web of promises and slogans. Some of them are mentioned below:

• India’s Future is Riding the New Expressways
• Harnessing the world’s Best Technology
• Introducing India’s New Benchmark of Reliability, Performance, Efficiency, Safety and Endurance
• Tomorrow’s vehicles manufactured right here, in India today!

Product Launch:

Initial stages of this product saw a collaboration with Force, but the company realized that in the long run, this would turn out to be more harmful than helpful and would question it’s authenticity in the eyes of customers. It would lose its stature as a premium product. Following its transition from Force to MAN, the company launched a tractor head in the top tractor segment. Shortly after this, the company saw entry into the tipper segment.

Another major issue that plagued the company on account of it’s joint venture was the intercultural aspect.

MAN also introduced its AIROBUS shortly after making its entry into the tractor and tipper segment. The company launched a 45 seater Luxury AC Coach.

MAN was still working with an amateur mindset and had not quite figured out what their stand and place in the market was. They had trouble figuring out their approach in the market. What made it all the more appalling was that BharatBenz entered the Indian market only after MAN but managed to sell more vehicles than MAN itself. They had failed to connect the line between MAN and Bharat Benz and analyse what they were doing right and MAN was doing wrong. While Bharat Benz focused only on Heavy duty vehicles, Bharat Benz had a plethora of segments ranging from light to heavy duty. One of the other major differences that was identified in both their approaches to the Indian market was that MAN targeted only the niche segments of the Indian society while Bharat Benz focused on mass market. It can be seen there were both financially strong and had very similar reputation and both being German companies. However BharatBenz could place a stronger foothold in India in a fraction of the time that MAN had already established in Indian markets.

Product Support

In terms of product support, the company introduced a plethora of schemes. Some include the following, with the promise of free service under the following conditions.

Haulage: This ensured that the customer got his 6 free services which could be availed at an interval or the earlier of either 15,000kms or 60 days.

Haulage with 2VCR & VP44: This supported the customer by providing the promise of 6 free service with an interval of the earlier of either 20,000 km or 75 days.

Tipper & Special Applications: This type of support could be availed on tippers and special application vehicles which entailed 6 free services intervallic at 450 hours or 30 days, whichever is earlier.

Along with product support in terms of specialized and customized service options, the company also had a flawless Warranty Policy.

Haulage: This warranted the product for 24 months or unlimited number of kilometers.

Tippers: on Tippers which gave a warranty for 18 months or 3000 hours, the earlier of the two.

Bus: The warranty on bus held good for a period of the earlier of 24 months and 200,000kms.

Apart from warranty on vehicles, there is also a warranty on separate parts which was introduced to ensure customer satisfaction, which MAN regards as their highest priority. All parts came with a warranty of 6 months or 1000 hours or 40,000 kms from the date of purchase from their respective dealers.

Additionally, the company is equipped with a network to deal with after sales need and support for its customers. This network ensured that after-sales service was on time and efficient, supervised by a global network of equipped dealers. These dealers are located ideally along the Golden Quadrilateral. Equipped individually with a mobile service van, these dealers are able to provide round the clock service to customers. In the case of large operations, “On Site Support” is provided customized to the individual needs of the customer. Apart from this, Sales and service of spares and vehicles are available.

Reasons for MAN’s downfall in the Indian Market:

There are a multitude of reasons for the downfall of MAN’s products in the Indian market. Some of them include considerations of Product and Pricing, Positioning, and Promotion techniques.

1. Product & Price :

Launched initially in the year 2006, the company sat down with the objective of creating a vision for tractor heads being 65% and tippers being 35% of the sales plan. They were priced at 24 lakhs. Though the customers swallowed a bitter pill with the exorbitant price, they accepted it in view of MAN being a globally reputed brand. Also, MAN had promised to reduce the prices after products became localized within a stipulated amount of time.

On the other hand, another problem existed. Though they were no longer associated with Force motors, product support and after sales support was taken up using pre-existing Force dealers in Mumbai, Belgaum, Bangalore, Chennai, Coimbatore, Jaipur and Gurgaon.

Additionally, the service network was low and this caused the huge collapse of the Haulage market’s initial plan resulting in customer rejection.

MAN ‘s focus transitioned to tippers with capacity of 280HP and 25Tons thus contributing to the mining sector. But this requires them to compete with Actros and Volvo which provide the same specifications at a much lesser price.

As time went by, the market saw the entry of new, dangerous, more attractive and efficient competitors in the form of Bharat Benz and Tata with similar products and prices as well. Ultimately, it set in customers’ minds that their expectations were not being fulfilled by MAN India. The concept of MAN was turned into one of unsatisfying services and they withdrew their interest in the company.

1. Position :

In terms of position, MAN’s failure can be owed to agreements that Indian customers have with commercial vehicles for undertaking mining projects, road constructions, irrigation work, soil transportation and metal transportation for Haulage and Tractor head models.

Initially, customers accepted MAN’s high prices and its value for money but in segments like Mining and rig applications, they required higher horse power than that provided by those than MAN launched.

They were very hasty with production. Clear proof of this manifested itself when around 16,200 tipper vehicles with 6 speed gear box was launched, when a chronic problem of gearbox failure existed in the Kerala market.

A similar problem existed when they launched the MAN AIRO bus in India. They had initial failures and without prior validation trials and servicing, the product was introduced to its customers.

MAN was evidently incapable of performing in the Indian market.

2. Promotion:

Initially prior to transitioning from MAN FORCE to MAN, the company conducted many road shows and awareness campaigns were conducted throughout the country. Special emphasis was given to advertising to promote and create a huge awareness for the company and all this succeeded in selling more than 8,500 in India. However after becoming an independent company, JV MAN failed to create a brand image or any sort of awareness in the minds of it’s customers through the media. Many dealers have quit from MAN as confidence that the company would be able to stand tall was dwindling down to nothing. MAN’s vision that they built out of confidence, faith and sheer determination was crumbling down to smithereens.

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This report contains a state wise analysis on the basis of all the parameters listed above. Also, this report contains a comparison carried state-wide based on Market size, Forecast, Product Sustainability, Drivers and their considerations with respect to state market dynamics. The report also analyses the different segments of the tipper industry, namely 16.2T, 25T and 31T GVW. Additionally, the report focusses on the options available for the customer with considerations of cost and budget. An analysis of the premium segment and discussion of each segment’s dynamics are also included in the report. Among the various segments of the tipper market, the 25T segment is undoubtedly the biggest in the Indian market. In second place comes the 16.2W GVW. However, the segment that is growing with maximum speed and occupying most of the customers’ favour recently is the 31T GVW segment. This is currenly the segment that has shown the fastest growth, accounted for by its economy and better TCO. It is also a point to note that changes in the tipper industry can be attributed by drawing back to variations in the Mining and Construction Industry.

The states that has seen maximum tipper sales are that of Madhya Pradesh, Tamilnadu, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra. Gujarat is often regarded as the largest site of the tipper market as this is a state which has invested heavily on infrastructure and such. Since the year 2011-12, the 16T segment has slowly risen in this state but however, this period has also seen the gradual shrinkage of the 25T segment. In terms of politics also, Gujarat is more stable and founded. Recently however, there have been new bans enforced which restrict overloading and owing to this, the focus is shifting gradually from 25T to 31T segment. The increase in the popularity of the 31T segment can be owed to balance number of trips and load bearing capacity.

Maharashtra is also one such state which has recently showed interest in the present trend of increased tonnage of tippers. The 25T segment has shown a very erratic trend corresponding to a curved zig-zag motion sales, though this has been so since 2009-10.

The next state in focus is Andhra Pradesh which has made it’s place in the rador with it’s strategy based Tipper sales. It is highly regarded as one of the most centralised hubs for many construction companies and hence, it also serves as one of the best spots for tipper sales as well as deals with the construction companies.

Now that various states have been focussed, let us now shift our focus to purchase behaviour. This highly depends on the customer profile. Starategicor has a team to analyse profiles of big customers and discuss negotiation. Customers are segmented into three, namely A, B and C. Segmenting customers based on a set of parameters has great significance for the Construction, mining and the Tipper industry. Large deals and strategic customers attract huge discounts.

Apart from customer research sales, there is also very effective after sales OEMs in place to provide regular maintenance Running cost per hour, First & Second running year cost, engine overhaul, Major failures, Respond time. Few more parameters are also there but this section needs a lot more improvements to set a more effective benchmark. Lot of factors pla a very important role in tipper sales, including after sales and price of spare parts.

Mining Industry Analysis:

The above graph shows the state wise figures of the mining industry. Jharkhand shows the most growth in the mining industry, shortly followed by Orissa and Chattisgarh. The states of West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh follow. Bihar, Sikkim and Assam are the states with the least advancement in the mining industry.

Coal Import:

In terms of coal import, it is a combination of a number of factors. These include Coking Coal, Non-Coking Coal and Coke production. Together they make up total import of coal. The graph analyses the coal imports in the years from 2008-09 to 2012-13. Non coking coal is the biggest segment of the coal industry, shortly followed by coking coal. The graphs show a linear increase from 2008-09 to go to a all time high in 2012-13.

Construction Industry:

The above curve shows the growth of the construction industry in the years from 2007-08 to 2012-13. Unlike the coal industry, the construction industry shows erratic behaviour with the graph zig zagging its way. In 2007-08, the construction industry saw its best year. The year 2010-11 also show a favourable increase in the industry’s growth. However by the time the year 2012-13 struck, this industry struck a blow to an all time low, with a 4.3%decrease in growth from the previous year.

One of the refreshing facts that is evident from the first graph is that investments in India’s GDP is increasing as the years pass by. When the 12th plan was analysed, it showed the sector wise analysis of the investment. It was seen that 31% of total investment was banked on the power industry, while a stunning 29% was invested in the telecom industry. Roads and bridges contributed to another 12%, with irrigation, railways and oil&gas with an investment of close to 10%.

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