Interviewed by : Sandeep Pattnaik

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Raj Subudhi, Managing Director at Ananta Automobiles Pvt. Ltd—an exclusive dealer of Nissan brand of automobiles in Odisha, is a B. Tech (Mechanical Engineering) and has done his MBA from Glasgow University (UK). A third-gen entrepreneur of his family, he was responsible for business development at Anant Nissan in addition to carrying out acquisition, setting up and growth of new biz verticals. It was a marriage of opportunities that he has been associated with the Nissan Brand. In the year 2009-10, Nissan had established its Indian subsidiary at Chennai and started haunting for dealers, while he got the opportunity to start the business here in the state. The dynamic entrepreneur has also an ambition to venture into agro and food processing sector down-the-line.

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Excerpts :

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Q.1. How do you find Odisha market for Nissan?

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Ans. At the initial years of our set up during 2010-11, Nissan was a fledgling brand with only Micra running the show. Subsequently a host of products like, Premium Sedan ‘Sunny’, Multi-purpose vehicle ‘Evalia’, compact sports utility ‘Terrano’ etc has been added to the brands’ portfolio. Over the years it has acquired about 5% market-share in the State of Odisha among its contemporary brands in the premium segment like; Toyata, Honda, Volkswagen and Ford.

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Q.2. What remains the brand’s USP over its contemporary brands?  

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Ans. Low cost of ownership (starting from Rs 4 lac onwards), excellent fuel mileage / ltr and rich experience of comfort driving.

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Q.3. Anant Nissan is the exclusive dealer for Nissan in Odisha. Does it give you an advantage in terms of sales of Nissan brands? What is your monthly average top-line numbers across its brands for 2014-15? 

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Ans. We have recorded average sales of 40 cars per month during 2014-15. Advantage of being the exclusive dealer of the brand is that, we have been able to render ‘Value for Money’ service to our customers. However, challenge remains as to the low market penetration as having few networking point of sales [POS] in the state, being the single dealer of the brand. 

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Q.4. Tell us something about your Agro food and beverages venture.

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Ans. It’s too premature to talk about the venture right at the moment. However, we have a plan to come up with a food processing technology plant at Khurda Food Park in the State during FY’17.