Mahindra Targets Fruit And Vegetable Carrier Market With Furio Trucks 

Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. launched first two variants of its Furio line of intermediate to medium-sized trucks as it eyes the market for vegetable and fruits carriers.

The company plans to launch 21 variants of Furio, ranging from 6 to 18 tonne weight, over the next two years, Pawan Goenka, managing director at M&M, told BloombergQuint on the sidelines of the launch in Mumbai. “Within the segment, a good meaningful player should have 8-10 percent market share,” he said.

The 12-tonne and 14-tonne Furio variants will cost Rs 17.45 lakh and Rs 18.10 lakh (ex-showroom), respectively. These will compete with Eicher Motors Ltd.'s 12.97-tonne trucks that cost Rs 14.90 lakh, Ashok Leyland Ltd.'s 12-tonne Boss and 13-tonne Ecomet priced between 13 lakh and 14.10 lakh, and Tata Motors Ltd.'s 12-tonne Tipper priced at Rs 15.30 lakh.

The Furio line will look to cater to vegetable and fruits carriers and bring value to customers in terms of cost efficiency, said Goenka. “When we talked to customers on their unmet needs, one thing that came out is that profit in this segment is getting squeezed because of the cost pressure.”

M&M invested Rs 600 crore over four years to make its Furio trucks, Goenka said. The intermediate segment sees about 80,000 trucks a year volumes and is growing at an annualised growth rate of 15-16 percent, according to him. The Furio launch will help the company close gaps in its portfolio as it had none in the 6-25 tonne range, he said.