The festive season in India has always offered a substantial boost to car sales in the country. Especially, with the massive slowdown witnessed in the last few months, carmakers are hoping for things to turn around, and Maruti Suzuki is certainly one among them. Addressing the media today, post the company's Q2 financial result announcement, R C Bhargava, Chairman, Maruti Suzuki India said that, "sales in October this year will be comparable to sales in October last year". This is despite the company witnessing about 24.8 per cent drop in September 2019 sales and an overall 30.2 per cent slump in the Q2 sales of FY2019-20.
Last year, in October 2018, Maruti Suzuki India's total sales remained flat at 146,766 units, a mere 0.2 per cent growth as compared to the 146,446 units sold during the same month the previous year. In the domestic market, things were a little better for Maruti Suzuki last year, with the company selling 138,100 units, a 1.5 per cent growth, as against 136,000 units in October 2017. However, last October, the company's export took the biggest hit with 17 per cent de-growth at 8,666 units compared to 10,446 units sold during the same month in 2017.
It's also worth mentioning that last year the festival of Diwali came in November 2018, unlike this year. However, also, unlike in 2018, this year most days of the Navratri, along with Dussehra and Diwali, have fallen in the same month, so Maruti Suzuki might be able to beat the negative trend. Having said that, talking about the industry, Bhargava did not want to predict anything but did mention that he's hopeful that "in the next few months things should turn around". Bhargava also mentioned that so far, "Both retail and wholesale sales have been good in October," and talking about exports he added, "Exports are continuing and there is no concern about exports".
