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Escorts lines up models for South

S. Muralidhar

NEW DELHI, June 4

TRACTORS major, Escorts Ltd, is launching three of its Powertrac brands with straight axles as derivatives for specialised wetland (rice) cultivation in the southern States of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

The planned launches are part of a strategy that Escorts has drawn up to corner more market-share in the South, where wetland cultivation is prevalent. The new tractors are expected to help the company leverage its Farmtrac brand, which already has consi derable recognition in the southern States, said company sources.

Escorts is targeting sales of over 3,000 units of these straight-axle derivatives during the current year as compared to sales of about 1,800 units of the present Farmtrac 45 horse power (HP) achieved during the financial year 1999-2000 in these States.

Further, as part of its plan to introduce three to four new tractor models this year, Escorts has launched the Farmtrac 70 and the Farmtrac 80, incorporating engines of 65 HP and 75 HP.

These models also feature Carraro transmissions, which are being manufactured at the joint venture plant (Carraro India Ltd) in Ranjangaon, near Pune.

With the introduction of these new models, the company has about 15 different variants and models on offer. Escorts had added three models during the year ended March 2000. These included the Powertrac 430 and 435 and Farmtrac 45. The Powertrac series ha d originally been launched in the western States and then, based on the response, had been offered in the other markets.

This series of tractors, which has fuel-efficient AVL engines and contemporary sheet metal styling, has been popular amongst the farming community. During the current year, it is expected that more than 60 per cent of the tractors shipped by the company will be from the Powertrac stable.

The tractor industry in 1999-2000 registered a meagre increase of about 5,000 tractors over the previous year which was a departure from the brisk growth rates witnessed in the two preceding years.

All the major players in the industry, with the exception of Escorts, registered low or negative sales growth. Mahindra & Mahindra, the market leader, achieved a growth rate of only 1.8 per cent, while Punjab Tractors, which had been registering record g rowth rates in the previous years, showed a growth of a mere 4.9 per cent in 1999-2000.

Escorts recorded a growth of 15.6 per cent in 1999-2000 and had sold over 52,000 tractors as against 45,000 sold in 1998-99. This also represented a growth in the market-share of the company from 17.7 per cent in 1998-99 to 20.2 per cent in 1999-2000.

Escorts is projecting a market-share of 23 per cent by 2003-04 and expects its unit sales to go up to about 80,000 units per annum as against a projected market size of about 3.4 lakh units per annum.