Eight orders for Lanka Ashok Leyland’s luxury ‘Palace on Wheels’ buses
View(s):Lanka Ashok Leyland has received eight orders for its new ‘Palace on wheels’, a luxury bus concept which will cater to high-end tourists, officials said.
“We got all these orders from Ebert Silva Holidays and will be custom made for their up market tourists,” Umesh Gautam, CEO, Lanka Ashok Leyland told the Business Times. He said these luxury motor homes will have amenities like bedrooms, living room, a shower area, a conference room, a gym and a toilet. He said that the buses, each worth Rs 14.5 -18 million, will arrive before September.
Mr. Gautam added that each bus will have different amenities.
Customers can choose from a range of fixtures and fittings to customise their bus – from high-quality leather seats to real wood units and stone tiles in the kitchen and bathroom. The bus has air suspension so that it won’t jerk and it also has automated transmission. “We understand the needs of customers seeking a luxury road experience, especially for long distance trips like from Colombo to Jaffna. This will be ideal for something like a small group of travellers looking for a more comfortable journey,” Mr. Gautam said.
In the meantime, he said devaluation, import duties, high costs of borrowing and leasing and liquidity restrictions have placed significant burdens on the company’s customers and their businesses. “As a result, many customers in the construction sector are facing economic pressures themselves have postponed their decisions to purchase which caused a decline in tipper and truck sales this year. We’ve seen an increase in the number of seizures by leasing companies which have created an alternative secondary market where demand for our products can be met at lower prices. On our part, management had taken decisions to absorb the added costs as much as possible to help our customers along with provide competitive leasing facilities to them to help mitigate some of the negatives.”
Mr. Gautam said that against an unfavourable macroeconomic environment in 2012/13, the firm saw its net profit drop 72 per cent for the full year to Rs 341.5 million against Rs 1,206.2 million experienced in 2011/12.
He added that Lanka Ashok Leyland saw its revenue drop 37 per cent to Rs 10.4 billion in 2012/13 compared to Rs 16.7 billion in 2011/12 due to a fall in sales volumes of its core business operations despite seeing revenue increases from its generators and spare part segment, and vehicle repair income.
The company saw a disproportionate decline in its gross profit which fell 66 per cent year on year to Rs 699.9 million from Rs 2 billion in 2011/12.
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