Ashok Leyland
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| Ashok Leyland | |
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| Type | Public |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1948 |
| Headquarters | Chennai |
| Revenue | USD 1 billion |
| Employees | 12,000 |
| Website | www.ashokleyland.com |
Ashok Leyland (NSE: ASHOKLEY, BSE: 500477) is a commercial vehicle manufacturing company based in Chennai, India.
The company was established in 1948 as Ashok Motors, with an aim to assemble Austin cars. Manufacturing of commercial vehicles was started in 1955 with equity contribution from Leyland Motors. Today the Company is the flagship of the Hinduja Group, an England-based Indian group. They have a market share of around 30%.
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[edit] History
In 1948, Ashok Motors was set up in what was then Madras (now Chennai), for the assembly of Austin Cars. The Company's destiny and name changed soon with equity participation by British Leyland and Ashok Leyland commenced manufacture of commercial vehicles in 1955. Early products included the Leyland Comet bus chassis, which sold in large numbers to many operators, including Hyderabad Road Transport, Ahmedabad Municipality, Travancore State Transport, Bombay State Transport and Delhi Road Transport Authority. By 1963 the Comet was operated by every State Transport undertaking in India, and over 8,000 were in service. The Comet was soon joined in production by a version of the Leyland Tiger.
In 1968 production of the Leyland Titan ceased in Britain, but was restarted by Ashok Leyland in India. The Titan PD3 chassis was modified, and a five speed heavy duty constant-mesh gearbox utilized, together with the Ashok Leyland version of the O.680 engine. The Ashok Leyland Titan was very successful, and continued in production for many years.
Ashok Leyland vehicles have built a reputation for reliability and ruggedness. The 375,000 vehicles being put on the roads have considerably eased the additional pressure placed on road transportation in independent India.
In the populous Indian metros, four out of the five State Transport Undertaking (STU) buses come from Ashok Leyland. Some of them like the double-decker and vestibule buses are unique models from Ashok Leyland, tailor-made for high-density routes.
In 1987, the overseas holding by Land Rover Leyland International Holdings Limited (LRLIH) was taken over by a joint venture between the Hinduja Group, the Non-Resident Indian transnational group and IVECO Fiat SpA, part of the Fiat Group and Europe's leading truck manufacturer.
In the journey towards global standards of quality, Ashok Leyland reached a major milestone in 1993 when it became the first in India's automobile history to win the ISO 9002 certification. The more comprehensive ISO 9001 certification came in 1994, QS 9000 in 1998 and ISO 14001 certification for all vehicle manufacturing units in 2002.
Ashok Leyland is a technology leader in the commercial vehicles sector of India. Its annual turnover exceeds USD 1 billion. Selling around 75000 medium and heavy vehicles each year, Ashok Leyland is India's largest exporter of medium and heavy duty trucks out of India.
It is also one of the largest Private Sector Employers in India - with about 12,000 employees working in 6 factories spread over the length and breadth of India.
The company recently announced the takeover of the Avia Truck Business Unit in Czech Republic for an undisclosed amount. The Purchase of Avia Truck Business Unit gives Ashok Leyland a foothold in the highly competitive European Truck market.
The Hindujas group also recently brought out the IVECO's indirect stake in Ashok Leyalnd for an undisclosed amount. Thus Ashok Leyland Is now purely a Hinduja Group Company.
[edit] Leadership
Ashok Leyland is currently headed by Mr R. Seshasayee. Under his leadership, the company has expanded from a purely India-centric company to a company with global focus.
Mr. Seshasayee (Sesh as he is popularly known within the industry circles) recently took over as President of CII (Confederation of Indian Industry), the apex body representing Indian Industry.
IN the Recent AGM held on 01.08.2006, Mr. Seshasayee was re-appointed as the CEO (Managing Director) of the Company for a term of Three more years starting from 01.06.2006 to 31.05.2009.
The company last year appointed Mr Vinod K Dasari as the Chief Operating Officer.
The following are the other functional heads at Ashok Leyland LImited
1. Mr. Vinod Dasari is the Chief Operating Officer of the company.
2. Mr. K. Sridharan is the Chief Financial Officer.
3. Mr. N. Mohana Krishnan is the Chief Internal Auditor (Executive Director - Internal Audit).
4. Mr. N. Sundararajan is the Company Secretary and & Executive Director in-charge of Secretarial, Legal and Insurance.
5. Mr. J. N. Amrolia is the Executive Director - Human resources and recruitment
6. Mr. N. Chandrashekaran - is Heading the Information Management Division as General Manager
7. Mr.B.M.UdhayaShankar - is Heading the Manufacturing operations as Executive Director - Manufacturing
8. Mr. Anup Bhat is heading the Component and Material Sourcing operations division as - Executive Director - Strategic Sourcing
9. Mr. Rajindar Malhan is heading the international and exports marketing activities as - Executive Director - International Operations
10. M. Natraj is heading the Product design and development activities as - Executive Director - Product Development and Advanced Engineering
[edit] Company facts
- Eight out of ten metro state transport buses in India are from Ashok Leyland. At 70 million passengers a day, Ashok Leyland buses carry more people than the entire Indian rail network.
- Ashok Leyland has a near 98.5% market share in the Marine Diesel Engines Markets in India.
- In 2002, all the vehicle-manufacturing units of Ashok Leyland were ISO 14001 certified with Environmental Management System.
- The company has six manufacturing locations in India:
- Last Financial year (2005-2006) the company sold 61,655 vehicles which is an all time high considering the past sales history of Ashok Leyland. This Fiscal the company has targeted to produce and sell close to 75,000 vehicles.
- More people travel by Ashok Leyland products in a day than whole of Indian Railways put together.
- It is one of the leading suppliers of defense vehicles in the world
- It is one of the leading Brands in India and most easily recognizable one.
- Ennore foundries is the Group company and Fellow Subsidiary of Ashok Leyland limited
- The company recently announced the acquisition of the Truck Business Unit of Czech-Republic based AVIA.
- The company also recently announced the setting up of a new Plant in the North Indian state of Uttranchal at Pant Nagar at an investment outlay of Rs. 1000 crores. This plant is expected to go on stream in the year 2008. The Plant will have a capacity to Produce around 25,000 commercial vehicles and is expected to cater mainly to the North Indian Market.
- The company announced recently that it has signed an agreement with emirate of Ras-Al kimah (One of the emirates forming part of UAE) for setting up a new manufacturing base in Middle east.
- The company also announced that it may set-up a manufacturing base in South Africa.
[edit] Current direction
The company has increased its rated capacity from 50,000 vehicles per annum to nearly 77,000 vehicles per annum. Also further investment plans including putting up two new plants - one in North India and one in middle east Asia are fast afoot. After expansion, the company shall attempt to dominate the medium- and heavy-duty commercial vehicles market in India. In fact the company achieved an all time production of 65,000 vehicles in the financial year 2005-2006. The company is actively considering and has made grad plans to enter the second hemisphere markets like Africa and Middle East. It has already a sizable presence in African Countries like Nigeria, Ghana, Egypt and South Africa.
Additionally, Ashok Leyland is looking to expand its production operations overseas to make it a more global company. To assist in this goal, the company is looking to acquire small- to medium-sized commercial vehicles manufacturers in China and other developing countries which have an established product line.
The company has recently started to build its own corporate office in the suburbs of Chennai at a Cost of Rs. 50 crore.
The company recently announced that it has acquired Czech-based Avia's truck business.
The company supplied military vehicles to the Sudanese government despite the British government embargo of controlled goods to the Sudan. A BBC TV Newsnight expose of the deal was dropped a few hours before broadcast on 20th October 2006 after a meeting with legal representatives of the Hinduja group.
The company has embarked on an ambitious modernisation plan for manufacturing engines, gearboxes and axles, at it's Chennai plant. The new engine manufacturing facility is expected to go on-stream by April 2007. Once it goes on stream the new engine facility will be one of the most modern facilities in Asia. The axles facility is expected to go on-stream by Jan 2007. The gearbox facility, which is a capacity addition programme, utilising technology from ZF-Germany, will follow latter.
[edit] Products
[edit] Passenger segment
- Viking BS-I - city bus
- Viking BS-II - city bus
- Cheetah BS-I
- Cheetah BS-II
- Panther
- 12 M
- Stag Mini
- Stag CNG
- 222 CNG
- Lynx
- Double Decker
- Vestibule
- Airport Tarmac Coach
[edit] Goods segment
- Bison Haulage
- Tusker Super 1616
- Comet CO 1611
- 1613 H I I
- Comet Gold 1613
- Comet Tipper (4X2)
- Taurus 2516- 6 X 4 Tipper
- Bison Tipper
- Tusker Super 2214 - 6 X 2
- Tusker Gold 2214 (6 X2)
- Taurus 2516 - 6X 4
- 2516 H (6X2)
- Taurus 2516 - 6 X 2
- 4018 Tractor
- Artik 30.14 Tractor
- Tusker Turbo Tractor 3516
- ecomet 912
- ecomet 111i
