The flip side to the ongoing recession in the Auto Industry!

In recent times, the Auto Industry is facing a steep downfall. This is not only affecting the sales of cars but is also affecting the jobs of the people. Prominent Industry players also could not escape this wrath and are forced to make unwilling changes in their organizational structure, according to a story by India Today:

Maruti Suzuki India reported a sixth consecutive monthly sales to decline with the numbers falling 33.5 per cent 1,09,264 units in July 2019. 

Hyundai Motor India sales fell 3.8 per cent to 57,310 units during the month, while the domestic sales of Honda Cars India dived 48.67 per cent to 10,250 units. 

In July 2019, Mahindra & Mahindra registered a plunge of 15 percent in total sales to 40,142 units

Tata Motors saw its sales going down by 34 percent to 32,938 units.

The big giants of the sector are facing recession and are forced to cut-off their employee strength.  Meanwhile, in the same industry, the SME’s especially from the servicing background does not seem to be much affected by the ongoing sectorial downfall. Just like every coin has a flip side to it, so does this situation. Mentioned below are comments from two such start-up Founders who are explaining why their company is still unaffected by this big-time recession in the auto industry.

AutoFurnish, a car accessories manufacturing & dealer has an interesting take on this downfall of the automobile industry. Puneet Arora, Founder & CEO of AutoFurnish says that “With the fall in the sales of new cars, there is an evident fall in the sales of cars accessories for new cars which has made an effect on our balance sheets. But if the new cars are not selling the industry is witnessing an increase in the sale of refurbished cars and the owners of these cars purchase car accessories to make the cars their own and to give it a feel of a new drive. So after accessing the whole situation, we are unhappy with the decrease in sales of new car accessories but the sales of refurbished cars accessories have balanced the situation for us.”

 Adding on to this Sandeep Menon, Founder & Director Wheels Wisdom; a post-warranty personalized car servicing firm said ‘’The decline in the auto industry has seen most auto giants struggle. However, SME's - particularly in the car servicing and repairs space do not seem to be affected much by the ongoing recession.  This is due to the fact that cars that are already on the road require ongoing maintenance, and these are non-discretionary expenses’’.

When the giants are even struggling to cope-up with their Q1 revenues, the SME’s have figured out a way to sustain. On the same terms, we would like to explore an industry story participation opportunity where Wheels Wisdom and AutoFurnish can participate and share their end of the story backed by data/figures in this crisis situation for the auto sector.