Maruti Suzuki said its revenue increased 20.3% in the three months from January to March this year compared to the same quarter last year, while net profit jumped 16%.
“Growth in volumes, increase in share of the Company’s higher segment models, benefits due to full capacity utilization and cost reduction efforts contributed to increase in profits. This was partially offset by increase in commodity prices and adverse forex movement,” India’s largest carmaker said.
In the fourth quarter, the company sold 4.14 lakh vehicles, an increase of 15%. However, revenue grew even faster primarily because it was able to sell more of higher- and mid-range cars this year compared to last year.
For the full financial year that ended in March, revenue increased 18.5%, while net profit rose 37%.
The biggest driver for the company was its ‘utility vehicle’ segment, which includes the enormously successful Vitara Brezza, along with older models such as S-Cross — which didn’t live up expectations — and Ertiga and Gypsy.
The company sold 1.96 lakh utility vehicles in the year ended March, compared to about 95,000 in the previous year. In other words, it sold 1.01 lakh extra cars in the utility segment this year.
Vitara Brezza, which was introduced in the last few days of the previous year, saw sales of around 1.1 lakh during the year, which boosted the company’s profits.
Mini car — or Alto — sales continued to decline during the full year, but were still substantial at 4.14 lakh, a fall of 4.4%.
Compact cars, which include Baleno, Swift and Dzire, saw an increase of 7.9% in the year to 5.85 lakh.
Ciaz sold 64,448 units during the year.
In all, total domestic sales increased 11% to 14.45 lakh.
It said it expects to get further fillip to the ‘compact’ segment with the launch of new Dzire next month.
The 2017 Dzire is based on the new generation Swift, but will no longer carry the Swift tag in its name.
