Suzuki News

Suzuki Motor Corporation’s Indian automobile production and sales subsidiary Maruti Udyog has been renamed Maruti Suzuki India Limited.

Maruti Suzuki India was established in 1983 and by the end of March, 2007 had produced 6.4 million vehicles making it India’s largest motor manufacturer by a substantial margin.

In the year to March, 2006, the company’s share of the Indian Domestic market stood at 54.6% with substantial exports to countries close to India as well as to Latin America, Asia and Africa.

Maruti Suzuki has 4,700 employees based at its original plant at Gurgaon and at an all new plant at Manesar which opened in 2006 to meet steadily rising demand for its products.  The Gurgaon plant is built on a site of 1.2 million square metres whilst that at Manesar has a total site area of 2.4 million square metres.  The combined built area of both plants is 380,000 square metres [almost 4.1 million square feet].

Maruti Suzuki’s production facilities are currently being further expanded to accommodate production of new models and this will enable exports to Europe and other overseas markets to be increased.  By 2009 production capacity will be 960,000 units annually, representing a further investment of almost £900,000,000 [200,000 million Yen].

As part of this expansion a new diesel engine plant has been established producing engines under licence from Fiat Powertrain. Diesel engines from this new plant – also at Manesar - will be supplied to Magyar Suzuki, Suzuki’s Hungarian subsidiary, for installation in the new Suzuki Splash.

The diesel engine plant currently has around 600 employees [March, 2007]. 

Darren Ponsford has joined Suzuki GB PLC as General Manager Marketing in the Automobiles Division.  He will report to Director Sales and Marketing, David Seward. He joins the Company from Wunderman, a leading global Relationship Marketing agency and part of the WPP Group.

Having joined Wunderman’s Automotive practice in London in 2001, he has worked on Retail and B2B strategies for Ford Motor Company brands in the UK and Europe. And as Group Director, Regional Development, he helped strengthen Wunderman’s automotive practices across Europe by supporting Wunderman’s country offices’ engagement with automotive clients.

Since 2006, he moved into a strategic business development role, working on new and innovative automotive strategies to keep Wunderman at the forefront of automotive marketing delivery.

Prior to joining Wunderman, Ponsford was with Mazda Cars (UK) Ltd for 11 years (from 1990 to 2001) in a number of office-based and dealer-facing roles ranging from technical and after sales support, dealer training, vehicle enhancement, product management and marketing. In his final role at Mazda, he was responsible for helping to build a consistent Mazda brand identity and develop marketing strategies to drive Mazda’s brand awareness and volume aspirations.

Darren combines business, marketing and technical skills being qualified with an MBA and graduating with an honours degree in mechanical engineering.

He currently lives with his partner in Tunbridge Wells but they will be moving nearer to Milton Keynes where Suzuki GB is based.