The UK?s super luxury auto giant Bentley launched its Rs 2.9-crore Mulsanne on Monday for the Indian customers and is set to hit the Indian roads by October-November 2010. The company is shifting focus more towards the emerging markets for its sales, especially China and India. Chris Buxton, regional director for Middle East, Africa and India in an interaction with FE?s Ronojoy Banerjee shared the company?s plans. Excerpts:

What strategic change has Bentley brought in to tackle the slowdown in demand worldwide?

Traditionally, the US, the UK and parts of Europe have contributed to about 80% of the company?s sales. But since the slowdown, their share has dropped to 60%. So we are looking more towards the emerging markets now.

How much does the emerging markets contributed to the company?s overall sales? Do you see that changing now?

The share of Middle East, Africa and India was 5% till a few years back and now it?s approaching 15%. The bigger markets volumes? have dropped. However, these emerging markets have either grown or remained consistent. We have not seen a lot of drop here. This has helped a lot. We have a lot of loyal customers in this part of the world.

How many company centres do you have in India at present? Any plans for setting up new ones?

At present, we have one sales centre. But we have sales offices in Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad.

How bullish are you on the Indian market vis-?-vis the Chinese market?

In general, around the world, people are talking about when the recession is going to end. No one knows the answer. But the two answers in the world are China and India. I do think India is strong but may not be as strong as China. In certain areas India is more specialised than China. But I do expect a lot of growth in this market. Not huge growth but slow and controlled growth. We don?t set sales target because it?s based on orders by individual customers. We tend to follow what the market does. We are very exclusive. The Chinese market for Bentley is 10-times larger than India.

The high net worth customers you are targeting probably already have a Rolls Royce or a Lamborghini lying in their garage. Then why should they buy a Bentley Mulsanne now?

Why Bentley, because many of our cars can travel at 200 miles an hour. If you look at the aerodynamics of such cars they are not sports cars like Lamborghini or Ferrari. They defy the law of physics ?to allow such cars to travel at that speed is amazing. Bentley is of course about luxury but also speed. Large part of our heritage is racing. In fact, the car we have unveiled, Mulsanne, is named after a racing circuit. Bentley gives you the luxury of sitting at the back and being chauffeured. And on weekends if you want to drive a Bentley, though it may not look like a sports car but it can beat many sports cars.

The Mulsanne model it seems was stopped after 1992. Why did you stop production of Mulsanne and why a comeback after 18 years?

It?s the name that was stopped. But the model line of the big Bentleys continued. We just changed the name. Bentley is not like, say a Toyota where one Corolla would come and one after that and it would continue like that. We chose a name that?s befitting the car at that time. So Mulsanne is the first big Bentley. When you drive, it is a big and a powerful car but it doesn?t feel like that.