Brian Joss –
Sanjoy Gupta is the new chief executive officer of Mahindra South Africa.
Gupta’s appointment comes in the wake of the earlier announcement that current Mahindra SA CEO, Ashok Thakur, will be heading up Mahindra’s newly established African Business Unit, which will act as the centre of the company’s business expansion into Africa. He joins the Mahindra SA team from Mahindra & Mahindra in India, where he was vice president for national spares and service strategy, technical support, sales and service, and customer satisfaction and when it celebrates its 11th year in South Africa.
Its importance has gained further momentum with the recent announcement of an Africa-focused business expansion strategy, controlled by a dedicated Africa Business Unit. This confirms SA’s key role in Mahindra’s future expansion plans on the African continent.
“In 2004, when we started Mahindra SA, we already knew that the country would be the beachhead for Mahindra’s growth in Africa,” says outgoing CEO Thakur. “Since then, we’ve encouraged local skills development and have reduced the number of ex-pats in favour of SA employees.
“We have several new model introductions planned in the short to medium term, while we also anticipate expanding the Mahindra dealer network,” Thakur concluded.
