For those who find car serving a pain on working days, Carnation Auto is offering mobile car workshops. Mr. Jagdish Khattar-led initiative announced the launch of a new business vertical called ‘Workshop-on-Wheels (WoW)
The company plans to expand the new business to over 150 roaming station across thecountry by 2010-11. Mr. Khattar, Chairman and Managing Director, Carnation,said, “This is a customer-centric product focussed on convenience and cost. Wehave launched our mobile vehicle servicing business today with 10 pilot vans insix cities. We will take the number of such vans to 50 by the end of thisfiscal and to 150 by March 2011.”
He said that the new work shop model is more economical for the company, as it saves on the real estate costs of the auto hubs, while adding that the new model will be percent more expansive than the auto hubs.
The company has tied up with 3M and Castrol for a range of services including car care, car detailing, and preventive maintenance, mechanical and electrical repairs and surface treatment among other services.
Carnation is also going ahead with the expansion of its multi-brand service outlets and is looking to take their number to more than double by the end of this fiscal. With the new initiative, it is targeting professionals, women and the elderly car owners.
Mr. Khattar said the company had secured Rs 170 crore debt from the Punjab National Bank for business expansion.
“With this we will go to the customers’ doorstep to cater to their needs, taking into account their convenience, time and cost. The WOWs can fulfil almost 60 percent of the tasks carried out by any service station,” Mr. Khattar said.
On the company’s pre-owned car business, Mr. Khattar said three of Carnation outlets sell used cars and other one would start the business soon. “We have serviced about 6,500 cars in the last month and are seeing an increase of 25-30 percent every month,” he said. Carnation Auto is also looking to start its car insurance arm, besides opening a multi-brand dealership for new cars.
