Financial Chronicle - Force Motors, that will be entering the passenger vehicle business by launching its first sports utility vehicle — Force One shortly, has hired over 100 professionals at general manager and senior executive levels from competitors like General Motors (GM), Mitsubishi and Skoda India to help establish presence in the domestic passenger vehicle business.
"We have hired senior officials from competitors to build a strong team for the passenger vehicle arena, which is new for the company," Prasan Firodia, MD, Force Motors told Financial Chronicle after the announcement of the name of its first sports utility vehicle (SUV) — 'Force One', in Mumbai on Thursday. The company also unveiled a new logo for the passenger vehicle division on Thursday in Mumbai.
Sanjeev Garg, who worked at senior levels in GM, Daewoo Motors India/DCM Toyota Motors, has been roped in president — personal vehicles division, a notch below the managing director, Prasan Firodia. Prior to joining Force Motors, Garg was chief executive officer and MD at Hicom Chevrolet/GM operations in Malaysia. He also worked as business head for automotive components vertical for all GM brands in the country.
Garg, who was assigned to make a strong core team, has also roped in other senior executives including Anjan Mohanta and C Ravin, from GM as zonal heads for north-east region and south-west region, respectively.
"I had a task to build a core team of experienced professionals from the automobile industry as we would be working on a new challenge to build a new brand for Force Motors," Garg said.
Prashant Nair, who was working in the marketing team of Mitsubishi India, has been hired as marketing manager by Force Motors. There are also some people from Skoda Auto India, who have joined us, Garg said.
The company has also moved some senior managers from the commercial vehicles division to its passenger vehicles division.
Force Motors has set target to sell 4,000 units of Force One SUV in one-year after the launch and double the sales in the year after.
Force One SUV with 2.2 litre engine made under license from German auto major – Daimler in India, is expected to be launched next month.
Force One will be positioned between the entry level SUV's Mahindra Scorpio, Tata Safari and mid-range SUV's like Ford Endeavour and Honda CRV. "We will be positioning the SUV in the premium category priced in the range of Rs 10-20 lakh," Garg said.
The company will be setting up new wholesale, retail, processes, marketing and systems team, which will operate independently from the existing commercial vehicle division team. "We have plans to open around 25 dealerships in this financial year across major metros and tier-II cities and later expand it to 50 by end of 2012-13," a senior company official said.
Force Motors has invested around Rs 180-190 crore on setting up the assembly facility, network expansion and brand building. The assembly facility at Pithampur in Madhya Pradesh has capacity to produce 1,20,000 vehicles per year and can be expanded to 1,80,000-2,00,000 per annum in six months time.
The company also plans to launch a premium multi-purpose vehicle in 2012 and second-generation variant of Force One, with off-road capabilities in 2013.
