Honda launches unique ‘Mobile Service Van’ initiative

Honda launches unique ‘Mobile Service Van’ initiative

26082014

Honda launches unique ‘Mobile Service Van’ initiative           

to tap rural customers further to its last touch-point

·       The all new Mobile Service Van (MSV) takes Honda to rural customer doorsteps

·       Honda’s mobile 3S set-up is equipped with Sales-Service-Spares facility

·       Next step under Hub & Spoke model to expand Honda’s Brand footprint in remote areas

New Delhi, August 26, 2014: Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India Pvt. Ltd. (HMSI), the only Honda in Indian two-wheeler industry, today took its next step in rural ladder.

Entering the new and empowered Era in India, Honda has developed its Wave 2.0 strategy blue-print which encapsulates how Honda wings aims to realize its potential in hinterlands and achieve its goal of increased market penetration.

It is in this context that Mr. Keita Muramatsu (CEO & President, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India Pvt. Ltd.) and Mr. Prabhu Nagraj (Vice president, Customer Service, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India Pvt. Ltd.) today launched its next rural outreach initiative – Mobile Service Van(MSV).

As opposed to a traditional service van, Honda’s Mobile Service Van is unique as it combines a dealership & service outlet in a truly mobile format – a boon for reaching out to prospective and existing customers in rural areas at very effective cost.

Within the Mobile Service Van there is ample space for a display two-wheeler, seating arrangement for customers, LED display for better visual understanding of Honda’s two-wheeler, provision for test rides and public address system to create customer awareness via regular announcements. The two service bays translate to quality service and genuine spare parts closer to customer. Additionally, the mobile service van is a crucial platform through which Honda will train local service technicians at every hamlet.

Honda aims to expand the concept to 11 mobile service vans by the year end. 

Announcing the Honda’s Mobile Service Van solution Mr. Keita Muramatsu, CEO & President, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India Pvt. Ltd., said, “As the only Honda, we are expanding our network into hinterlands. In fact 70 per cent of the approximately 1,000 touch-points that we aim to add this year will be in rural areas. The new Mobile Service Van (MSV) is designed to take Honda one step ahead of even where the reach of its last touch-point ends.

As part of its go-rural approach, Honda has already stepped on the gas. On the product front, Dream series of affordable motorcycles has expanded to include CD 110 Dream, Dream Neo and Dream Yuga. Reaching closer to its customers, Honda plans to take its sales and service network to 3800 by the year end. Parallely, a new rural vertical has been internally created in early 2014 wherein close to 15 people and foot soldiers are closely overseeing Honda’s rural strategy, communication and implementation.

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For further information, please contact:

Public Relations Department

Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India Pvt. Ltd

public.relations@honda2wheelersindia.com

UNICEF deploys its largest emergency supply operation ever in a single month

Record amount of emergency aid delivered to children caught in record number of crises

COPENHAGEN/GENEVA/NEW YORK, 26 August 2014 – This August UNICEF shipped 1,000 metric tonnes of life-saving supplies for children caught in the world’s most urgent crises -- the largest emergency supply operation in the organization’s history in a single month. The amount delivered would fill 19 cargo jumbo jets.

“UNICEF’s massive deployment responds to a massive need in many different countries at the same time,” said Shanelle Hall, UNICEF’s Director of supply and logistics operations.  “Now it is vital to keep humanitarian corridors open so these supplies continue to reach the children who desperately need them.”

Foreseeing the need to ramp up the response to conflict in Iraq and the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, UNICEF secured as many chartered flights as possible.  In 27 days, the organization’s Copenhagen supply hub has dispatched 33 emergency cargo loads to the world’s most troubled regions:

·         Central African Republic received 26 MT in medical equipment, vaccines, emergency food rations and hardware to dig water wells.  Among essential medicines, anti-malarial supplies have been critical in protecting children from the country’s leading cause of death.  

·         Iraq’s displaced families and children in the northwest received 500 MT that included emergency food rations, water, medical supplies, tents, and ready-to-use therapeutic food. UNICEF’s dispatch of 4 million doses of polio vaccine will protect children’s health in the wake of the re-emergence of the disease due to the breakdown of health systems in neighbouring Syria.

·         Liberia’s effort to contain the Ebola outbreak has been strengthened by 248 MT of supplies from UNICEF such as latex gloves, safety goggles, and overalls to protect health workers, concentrated chlorine disinfectant and a range of essential medicines. UNICEF is also helping the government assess the country’s supply chain capacity, which is strained by the crisis.  

·         State of Palestine has received 3.5 MT in supplies, mostly in the form of essential medicines for Gaza to restock hospitals and health facilities that have been damaged in the conflict. UNICEF has also suppliedvaccines which are essential to protect children who become especially vulnerable during massive population displacements.

·         South Sudan has received 34 MT of life-saving nutritional support and supplies, including ready-to-use therapeutic foods for vulnerable children, 50,000 of whom are at risk of dying from malnutrition. Nearly one million children under five years old in South Sudan will require treatment for acute malnutrition this year.

·         In Syria, UNICEF’s supply response, which began as cargo airlifts four years ago, has evolved into a steady pipeline of supplies that in August included 89 MT of water purification tablets and education kits. UNICEF is also bringing in over 156 MT of health, education, and water supplies for displaced Syrian families in Lebanon and Jordan.  Preparation for winter is underway as UNICEF stockpiles children’s winter clothing sourced from local suppliers in the region.

“During multiple crises of this magnitude children must come first. UNICEF is committed to staying the course. As long as children are in need we will continue to undertake these urgent, complex and vast supply operations,” said Hall.

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About UNICEF

UNICEF promotes the rights and wellbeing of every child, in everything we do. Together with our partners, we work in 190 countries and territories to translate that commitment into practical action, focusing special effort on reaching the most vulnerable and excluded children, to the benefit of all children, everywhere. For more information about UNICEF and its work, visit: www.unicef.org

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Rita Ann Wallace
Press Officer