<div>Imagine a farmer, speeding across his farms in an all-terrain vehicle (ATV) to check on his crops and to take the harvest to the nearest market. Or imagine a two-member police force patrolling across small alleys and gullies in run down and rough neighborhoods or districts of a metropolis. All this can happen over the next four years if Polaris India manages to ink agreements with the various government departments that it is in talks with. <br /><br />But that is not how it started for Polaris Industries. <br /><br />This year, when Polaris India opened their 14th dealership in Bangalore, a 13-year-old son of a rich builder walked in through the doors of the dealership and fell in love with the ATV’s rugged looks. He pestered his dad into buying him an entry-level ATV that cost Rs 4 lakh. <br /><br />While the dealership is set up for retail and institutional sales, the interest in ATVs has caught the attention of the police and armed forces in India. “Our ATVs are being demonstrated to the police and the defence forces in India. They have expressed interest because our vehicles can be custom fitted for a lot of military and civilian applications,” says Pankaj Dubey, MD of Polaris India, the 100 per cent subsidiary of the $3.5-billion Polaris Industries in the USA. <br /><br />In fact, currently Polaris imports all the vehicles from the USA where they are manufactured.<br /><br />Dubey adds that the company has scaled up to 14 dealerships in 18 months and plans to open six more by the end of the year across the country. “Today we have a dealership in most of the states and now we are looking at the North Eastern states,” says Dubey. <br /><br />Polaris India expects that by the end of the decade, 50 per cent of their India business will come from enforcement and defence agencies. Polaris believes that India’s long borders and coastline would require vehicles such as these for patrolling. He also believes the ATVs can play a role in agriculture with light fitted trailers. “These small vehicles can be applied in to carrying loads up to a ton and can be very useful for short hauls in areas where your average truck cannot enter,” says Dubey. <br /><br />He adds that over the next three years, the company would focus on building relationships before bringing in advanced applications on their vehicles. <br /><br />The company has currently created experience centres in 14 cities, where the dealership is situated. It has found entrepreneurs who have keenly invested in one to five acres of land and have created artificial ATV ‘experience’ zones. <br /><br />These experience zones will have the entire range of Polaris ATVs, which can be driven around for an entry fee. These businesses make their money with the number of youth and families that visit the centre to experience off-roading. This works for the local dealers because these experience zones make their service centres busy as there will be a set of vehicles that need to be serviced and allow the retention of trained mechanics. <br /><br />“These experience zones allows us to build new business around a region,” says Rohit Murthy, Managing Partner of AKB Motors, a Polaris dealer in Bangalore. The brand is also planning to have racing events once the vehicle sales reach a certain scale. “But off-roading is a serious sport globally, it is just about gaining interest,” says Rohit Murthy. He says that today the interest would be around what these vehicles are and how good they look. <br /><br /><br /> </div>
