In a press release issued by Ford, the company has revealed its intentions of opening new dealerships in tier II and tier III cities this month as part of the celebrations for the Figo model crossing the 300,000 units mark.
The Ford Figo, gaining a new customer at the rate on one every five minutes, has steamrolled its way past the 300,000 sales mark in three years of its launch. This number includes both the domestic and the export market.
The proposed dealerships are to be opened in five tier III cities namely Solan, Sri Ganganagar, Gaya, Anand and Sikar. Dealership facilities are also to be opened in Faridabad and Cochin.
Joginder Singh, president and managing director, Ford India said that Figo has been a game-changing model for the company and has helped Ford to become a mainstream player in the market.
The Figo, which is currently exported to 37 countries world-over, widely known as one of the best offerings in its segment, providing best-in-class-features at a value-for money price, has been recently rated as India’s most dependable premium compact vehicle in the latest results of 2013 J.D. Power Asia Pacific India Vehicle Dependability Study.
With this feat, Ford intends to increase customer touch points to penetrate deeper in the market.
Ford India, which had recently launched the “celebration edition” to celebrate the Figo’s, third anniversary has planned to expand its dealer network to 265 sales and service outlets in 142 cities across India. This number is expected to rise to 500 by 2015. Ford has also introduced many service initiatives including Mobile Service Vans and Roadside Assistance (RSA) across growing locations.
Increasing its dealerships will improve Ford’s visibility in the smaller tier II and III cities where the market is pre-dominantly price-dependent. This could also be a platform to drive the sales of Ford’s newly launched EcoSport.
– Vishal Jaitra
