Mahindra Odyssea manufactures boats specially designed to navigate across coastal and inland waters in the country. Hiten Ghelani, CEO, Mahindra Marine talks about the company’s range of offerings for Indian boating enthusiasts By Sudipta Dev
What are your product offerings for the recreational/ tourism and water sports segment?
Mahindra Odyssea, part of the Mahindra group, makes India’s finest luxury powerboats. Built to exacting international standards, tailor-made for Indian waters, and custom-designed for individual tastes, our speedboats will inspire you to discover new adventures. Mahindra Odyssea’s offerings span across the recreational, commercial and defense segments. While Odyssea’s recent foray in the yacht segment proves its capabilities in building fully customised yachts up to 24 metres, its presence is also established in the 35, 33, 22 and 17 feet models. The models also have unique add-ons catering to skiing, parasailing, and other water sports.
Your perception of the growth of luxury yacht/ boats market in India?
The luxury yacht/ boats market in India is quite nascent due to a number of prevailing factors. Although we have seen encouraging levels of interest in the past year, given rising disposable income backed by key government announcements, the fact is that India currently stands at one per cent of the US market in value terms. We, however, see this as a huge opportunity and consider the category at the cusp of growth. The government’s take on marinas, inland waterways and boat market regulations have been encouraging and we are confident that we are sailing in the right direction at the right time!
Who is your target clientele? Your focus on the export market?
In terms of Odyssea’s offerings in the recreational segment, our core target clientele consists of the adventurous and upwardly mobile HNI segment. We would like to develop the culture of boating in India. The coast of Mumbai, the backwaters in Kerala and the sands of Goa all have access to this adventurous and exciting market. We will pursue the export market in time at the opportune time. As of now, though, our focus is on the Indian market.
Are there any challenges preventing the market in India to realise its full potential?
There are regulatory and infrastructural impediments that need to be resolved on a war footing. We are, however, seeing the right moves being made by stakeholders to address this and have no doubt on the potential of the segment that will unfurl in time to come.
What are the future plans for the company, particularly for the recreational segment?
The recreational segment is key to the overall brand equity that we envision to build. Our focus is two-fold: to expand our product offerings and expertise to make world class yachts/ boats and to develop a “culture of boating” in India.