Expect tractor industry festive season sales to grow 8-10% this year: Escorts Kubota CFO

New Delhi, Nov 24 (PTI) Tractor sales in the festive months, spanning from September to November, are expected to grow 8-10 per cent this year on the back of good monsoon lifting market sentiments, according to farm and construction equipment firm Escorts Kubota Ltd whole-time director and CFO Bharat Madan.

After a soft first half, the tractor industry is expected to gain momentum in the second half of the ongoing fiscal, growing in double digits, leading to an overall mid-single digit growth for the full year, he told PTI.

"If you look at (festive) season months, which we normally count as September to November, we expect there'll be a growth of 8 to 10 per cent this year over last year's season months," Madan said.

He was responding to a query on how tractor sales in the industry fared during the festive season.

The festive season months account for about 40-45 per cent of the industry sales, he said, adding that this year, "in terms of volume, the industry will be somewhere around 3,25,000 tractors" for the season.

On tractor sales in the festive season, Madan said, "This time, since all the festivals were coming in October, September was a soft month. Otherwise, normally, the festive season starts from September itself".

This time, since everything got concentrated in October, he said, "So, we had a very good October for retail, and wholesale has been quite good, but September was muted. However, you will see the positive impact coming in Q3".

On the rationale behind the market coming back, he said, "After the good monsoon, we saw a positive month of September, during which most stocking was done with the channel partners, and October saw very good retail sales growth at almost more than 50 per cent, which is a positive sign".

Madan said a few months before September, the market was not good, either "flat or degrowing".

On the outlook for the year, Madan said, "Although the first half has been more or less flat for the industry, we expect the second half to grow in double digits, so that overall for the full year, FY25, the tractor industry should record a mid-single digit sort of growth". PTI RKL BAL