ng company based in Chennai, India.The company was established in 1948 as Ashok Motors, with an aim to assemble Austin cars. Manufacturing of commercial vehicles was started in 1955 with equity contribution from Leyland Motors. Today the Company is the flagship of the Hinduja Group, an England-based transnational conglomerate.
History
In 1948, Ashok Motors was set up in what was then Madras (now Chennai), for the assembly of Austin Cars. The Company's destiny and name changed soon with equity participation by British Leyland and Ashok Leyland commenced manufacture of commercial vehicles in 1955. Early products included the Leyland Comet bus chassis, which sold in large numbers to many operators, including Hyderabad Road Transport, Ahmedabad Municipality, Travancore State Transport, Bombay State Transport and Delhi Road Transport Authority. By 1963 the Comet was operated by every State Transport undertaking in India, and over 8,000 were in service. The Comet was soon joined in production by a version of the Leyland Tiger.
In 1968 production of the Leyland Titan ceased in Britain, but was restarted by Ashok Leyland in India. The Titan PD3 chassis was modified, and a five speed heavy duty constant-mesh gearbox utilized, together with the Ashok Leyland version of the O.680 engine. The Ashok Leyland Titan was very successful, and continued in production for many years.
Ashok Leyland vehicles have built a reputation for reliability and ruggedness. The 500,00
0 vehicles being put on the roads have considerably eased the additional pressure placed on road transportation in independent India.
In the populous Indian metros, four out of the five State Transport Undertaking (STU) buses come from Ashok Leyland. Some of them like the double-decker and vestibule buses are unique models from Ashok Leyland, tailor-made for high-density routes.
In 1987, the overseas holding by Land Rover Leyland International Holdings Limited (LRLIH) was taken over by a joint venture between the Hinduja Group, the Non-Resident Indian transnational group and IVECO Fiat SpA, part of the Fiat Group and Europe's leading truck manufacturer.
In the journey towards global standards of quality, Ashok Leyland reached a major milestone in 1993 when it became the first in India's automobile history to win the ISO 9002 certification. The more comprehensive ISO 9001 certification came in 1994, QS 9000 in 1998 and ISO 14001 certification for all vehicle manufacturing units in 2002. In 2006. Ashok Leyland became the first auto company in India to receive the TS16949 Corporate Certification.
Ashok Leyland is a technology leader in the commercial vehicles sector of India. Its annual turnover exceeds USD 1 billion. Selling close to around 83,000 medium and heavy vehicles each year, Ashok Leyland is India's largest exporter of medium and heavy duty trucks out of India.
It is also one of the largest Private Sector Employers in India - with about 12,000 employees working in 6 factories and offices spread over the length and breadth of India.
The company recently acquired Czech-based Avia's Truck Business Unit, since renamed Avia Ashok Leyland Motors s.r.o. This gives Ashok Leyland a foothold in the highly competitive European Truck market.
The Hinduja Group also recently bought out IVECO's indirect stake in Ashok Leyland for an undisclosed amount. Thus Ashok Leyland is now purely a Hinduja Group Company.
[edit] Leadership
Ashok Leyland is currently headed by Mr R. Seshasayee. Under his leadership, the company has expanded from a purely India-centric company to a company with global focus.
Mr. Seshasayee was also the President of CII (Confederation of Indian Industry), the a
pex body representing Indian Industry for the year 2006-2007.
The following are the other functional heads at Ashok Leyland
Mr. Vinod Dasari is the Chief Operating Officer.
Mr. K. Sridharan is the Chief Financial Officer.
Mr. N. Mohanakrishnan is Executive Director - Internal Audit.
Mr. N. Sundararajan is the Company Secretary and Executive Director in-charge of Secretarial, Legal and Insurance.
Mr. J. N. Amrolia is the Executive Director - Human resources
Mr.B.M.Udhayashankar - is Heading the Manufacturing operations as Executive Director - Manufacturing
Mr. Anup Bhat is heading the Component and Material Sourcing operations division as - Executive Director - Strategic Sourcing
Mr. Rajindar Malhan is heading the international and exports marketing activities as - Executive Director - International Operations
Mr. M. Natraj is heading the Product design and development activities as - Executive Director - Product Development and Advanced Engineering
Mr. N. Chandrashekaran - is GM - IT.
Mr. S. Nagarajan is heading the AUTO COMPONENTS GROUP as ED-ACG
[edit] Company facts
Eight out of ten metro state transport buses in India are from Ashok Leyland. At60 million passengers a day, Ashok Leyland buses carry more people than the entire Indian rail network.
Ashok Leyland has a near 98.5% market share in the Marine Diesel Engines Markets in India.
In 2002, all the vehicle-manufacturing units of Ashok Leyland were ISO 14001 certified with Environmental Management System.
The company has six manufacturing locations in India:
Ennore, Chennai
Hosur, Tamilnadu (3 plants)
Alwar, Rajasthan
Bhandara, Maharastra
Last Financial year (2006-2007) the company sold a record 83,101 vehicles which is an all time high considering the past sales history of Ashok Leyland.
It is one of the leading suppliers of defense vehicles in the world
It is one of the leading Brands in India and most easily recognizable one.
The company is setting up a new Plant in the North Indian state of Uttarakhand at 
Pant Nagar at an investment outlay of Rs. 1200 crores. This plant is expected to go on stream in the year 2008. The Plant will have a capacity to produce around 40,000 commercial vehicles and is expected to cater mainly to the North Indian market taking advantage of the excise duty and other tax concessions.
The company has signed an agreement with Ras Al Khaimah Investmemnt Authority (RAKIA) in UAE for setting up a new manufacturing base in the Middle East.
The company also announced that it may set up a manufacturing base in South Africa.
Current direction
The company has increased its rated capacity to 84,000 vehicles per annum. Also further investment plans including putting up two new plants - one in North India and one in middle east Asia are fast afoot. After expansion, the company shall attempt to dominate the medium- and heavy-duty commercial vehicles market in India. The company is actively considering and has made plans to enter the second hemisphere markets like Africa and Middle East. It has already a sizable presence in African Countries like Nigeria, Ghana, Egypt and South Africa.
Additionally, Ashok Leyland is looking to expand its production operations overseas to make it a more global company. To assist in this goal, the company is looking to acquire small- to medium-sized commercial vehicles manufacturers in China and other developing countries which have an established product line.
Last year, the company acquired Czech-based Avia's truck business. The newly acquired company has been named Avia Ashok Leyland Motors s.r.o.
