FADA President's Message April 2004 Gearing Up to Survive in New Paradigm Deshnidhi Kasliwal The year gone by on the whole, was a satisfactory one for the automotive industry and trade. The industry posted spectacular growth of over 15 per cent. The boom was not merely in terms of percentage growth figures, the year also witnessed major diversification and variety in products range to meet the growing needs of the customers, whose expectations keep on rising with each passing day. The impressive performance of the industry, however, may not have been fully reflected in the bottomlines of dealers. Needless to mention, in this competitive scenario, the automobile dealers have to get used to living with wafer-thin margins. I am optimistic that the road ahead for retail automobile trade is promising. While the sale margins are understandably shrinking, the other business opportunities are emerging on the horizon. We need to come out of the shadow of the past and to look out for and tap the other allied business opportunities. The increased sale volumes are a positive sign and are likely to improve the dealer viability in the medium to long term. This would lead to the increased revenues by way of other income streams, such as, insurance, sale of vehicle finance & accessories, more traffic at the workshops for repairs & servicing and other upstream & downstream business activities. FADA has been able to maintain the momentum of its activities. Recently, a Council Meeting, a Press Conference, an Interactive Session with Transport Commissioner and a Seminar on Service Tax were organised at Jaipur. The Seminar on Service Tax, in particular, was quite educative and informative for FADA members who have been grappling with the complexities of service tax ever since its introduction. Commissioners of Excise, Rajasthan who were present with a team of their officials were able to clarify various questions raised by the members. Similar seminars on Service Tax are proposed to be organised in other parts of the country as well, to educate and enlighten our members on the subject. At the Council meeting, a number of other initiatives have been identified by FADA, to be taken up for the benefit of our members. One, FADA is exploring the possibility of starting a FADA-ICICI Credit-cumMembership Card. This will serve the dual purpose of a credit card and also member's Identity Card. This co-branded card will also help members in availing special rates for various services and supplies from select service providers and vendors for which the dialogue is on. Two, we propose to strengthen the FADA training wing by appointing a full-time Director to give impetus to the training programme. A techno-commercial person at the helm of affairs will be able to identify the training needs of the auto dealerships and accordingly design training programmes for members in a structured manner on an on-going basis. Third, it is proposed to conduct systems audit of dealerships. Initially, this will be conducted for car dealerships in the north. A consulting firm for this purpose has been identified. The consulting firm will identify the systems which are good in a particular dealership and the systems, which are outdated or where the dealership is deficient. This process will help the dealerships in improving their business operations and upgrading their services to the desired levels to survive in the competitive times. It is therefore, in the interest of dealerships to have such a study conducted. We, in FADA, do appreciate that such an exercise involves a heavy expenditure. To help our members, who wish the system audit to be conducted at their dealerships, FADA has decided to share the expenses by contributing thirty per cent of the cost of the project. Hope, my fellow dealers will avail of this opportunity and come forward to get this kind of audit conducted for their dealerships. Look forward to your suggestions and comments for further strengthening the activities of FADA. With best wishes, Yours sincerely, Deshnidhi Kasliwal President