By Jane Mlambo | Mahindra vehicles will soon be assembled in Zimbabwe at the Willowvale Motor Industry plant, the company’s local representative has said.

Mahindra has in the past years slowly penetrated the African market and recently set up a R10 million plant in South Africa.

Mahindra Zimbabwe Head of Business Development, Mr Prometheus Chiwara said the company aims at localizing its production of the brand in order to satisfying the local markets.

“As Mahindra we are here to stay and look forward to having Mahindra as a buy Zimbabwe product which we are going to be assembling here.

“We have plans underway to assembly the vehicles here of which they are now at a very, very advanced stage,” Chiwara said.

Currently the company said it is in the process of pushing the Mahindra brand in Zimbabwe and will be introducing new tractors and agricultural implements for the upcoming agricultural season.

“We are on a drive to market the tractor side of Mahindra and we also have different agricultural implements, combine harvesters as well construction equipment,” Chiwara said.

Zimbabwe currently needs more than 4 000 tractors to be able to fully utilize its arable land.

Mahindra has in the past enjoyed parastatal and government support through such companies as TelOne, NetOne and the Central Mechanical Equipment Department (CMED).

Mahindra started operating in 1945 where they were building Willys Jeep under a contract for Chrysler and the company slowly grew to claim a niche in the world market.

Currently the company has a 0,5 percent in the Zimbabwean market but Chiwara says with the current aggressive marketing strategies, they are looking to grow to a double digit market share in the near future.

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