Mahindra First Choice Services goes into overdrive

CHENNAI: Car service provider Mahindra First Choice Services, as part of its aggressive drive in the after-market segment, is taking the franchisee route to expand its network from 28 now to 100 by this year-end and 450 by 2018, growing its revenue from 30 crore in FY14 to 100 crore this year, 300 crore next fiscal and 850 crore by 2018.

The ambitious plan is part of the company's innovative hub-and-spoke model, under which it is carving up the entire national market into 20 clusters with a central warehouse and 25 franchisees each. "The idea is to offer spare parts for servicing vehicles faster and at lower rates than the market by sourcing from OE (original equipment) spares suppliers," said Y V S Vijay Kumar, CEO of the company. "We are starting with the Chennai cluster - the first franchisee in Chennai, KLN Motor Agency, was announced Friday - to be followed by Madurai and Coimbatore, Bangalore and the rest of Karnataka, Pune, Mumbai and Delhi/NCR-Punjab. In the next 3-4 years, we will have 500 workshops, mostly franchisee-led," he said.