Commercial vehicles major Ashok Leyland said on Sunday that it is "studying several options" for the light commercial vehicles segment with vehicles between 2.5 and four tonne.

"We are looking at several options in the LCV category though anything concrete is yet to be finalised," said company managing director R Seshasayee.

Asked if Ashok Leyland was eyeing the sub-one tonne category where the Tata 'Ace' had been a runaway success, he said there were no such plans. "We are looking at vehicles between 2.5 and 4 tonne," he said.
Ashok Leyland, which dominates the medium and heavy commercial segment, currently has a range which starts from the 7.5-tonne though sales at the entry-level are not substantial.

The Hinduja group company posted a 20.6 per cent in profits for 2005-06 at Rs 327.3 crore while turnover grew by 25.8 per cent at Rs 6,053.1 crore against Rs 4,810.8 crore in 2004-05.

Seshasayee said though there was pressure on margins due to increase in prices of inputs and other inflationary trends, the company was hopeful of maintaining the profitability growth at last fiscal's level. "We are hopeful of maintaining the profit and topline growth at last fiscal's level," he said.
The company he said was taking several internal measures to contain the inflationary pressures. "We are working on increasing internal efficiences, on value engineering, shop-floor improvements, apart from global sourcing," he said. The company had gone for a 2.5 per cent price increase across product categories recently to offset the pressure.

Seshasayee said Ashok Leyland expects an over 10 per cent growth in sales this fiscal. "The commercial vehicle segment in India is expected to grow by about 10 per cent in 2006-07 and we expect to outperform the industry," he said.

The company's sales in 2005-06 grew 12.6 per cent at 61,655 units against 54,740 in 2004-05.

Scouting for a manufacturing facility in the north, the company is aiming to surpass the 1,00,000-unit production mark by 2008-09.

However, Seshasayee listed hardening interest rates and spiraling oil prices as areas for concern.