How customer-focus, customisation made ACI Motors a powerhouse | The Business Standard
Skip to main content
  • Epaper
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Banking
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • Subscribe
    • Epaper
    • GOVT. Ad
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Wednesday
May 28, 2025

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Epaper
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Banking
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • Subscribe
    • Epaper
    • GOVT. Ad
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
WEDNESDAY, MAY 28, 2025
How customer-focus, customisation made ACI Motors a powerhouse

Industry

Mahfuz Ullah Babu
13 September, 2022, 12:30 pm
Last modified: 13 September, 2022, 05:26 pm

Related News

  • How IDLC ensures corporate governance and customer trust
  • MoU signing ceremony with ACI Motors Limited 
  • 30,000km with the Yamaha FZ-S V3.0: A blend of refinement and control
  • Yamaha celebrates 7 years with ACI Motors
  • ACI Foundation to buy 1.35 lakh ACI Ltd shares

How customer-focus, customisation made ACI Motors a powerhouse

Mahfuz Ullah Babu
13 September, 2022, 12:30 pm
Last modified: 13 September, 2022, 05:26 pm

A customer-needs driven business model with strong focus on after sale services and customisation has seen ACI Motors make more in a month than its competitors can in a year. 

The ACI Ltd subsidiary, ACI Motors, a Bangladeshi distributor of global brands, started small in 2007 with farm mechanisation product Sonalika Tractor before expanding into many other segments to grow its annual turnover to around a quarter billion US dollars. 

A knack for quality venturing helped expand its footprint into automobiles and automotive, construction, power equipment and musical instruments, water pump and some others while the company is continuously introducing new agro machineries to revolutionise local farming. 

Following the tie ups with the world's strongest brands, most of the ACI Motors' business units are now leading the market. 

The Business Standard Google News Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel

ACI Motors Executive Director (ED) Subrata Ranjan Das, in an exclusive interview with The Business Standard recently, shared how the company made such a large footprint in a short time. 

"We take pride in the quality and impact of our businesses for mobility and speed," said Das, an agricultural engineer now leading the ACI Motors team of over a thousand people. 

Maximum customer focus ensures the best product and service, tie ups with strong global brands, tailouring products and services to best suit the local reality, and the talents within the team are the keys behind this unique competency in each of the company's business verticals, he said. 

"Give us any global brand that the local market needs and we would at least triple its sales," he declares, his confidence brimming due to the track record.

Subrata's confidence also stems from the company's focus on customisation, which matters a lot for the Bangladeshi market, according to him.

For instance, the local farmlands to be cultivated are small and too muddy. Keeping this in mind, the ACI reduced their Sonalika Tractor's and power tillers' turning radius alongside strengthening them to plough the muddy grounds. 

Also the farmers benefit a lot as their land is ploughed in one-tenth the time, at one-third the cost and most importantly the land can be prepared much better for cultivation. 

These are why around one-third of Bangladeshi farmland is cultivated by ACI's agro machineries and the company is serving around half of the annual formal market for agro machineries.  

Sonalika Tractor users also get service in any point of the country within six hours and that is one of the reasons why the brand is leading the market. 

Leveraging its market leadership position in the country's farm mechanisation, it entered the motorcycle business. 

Japanese Yamaha in 2017 tied up with ACI Motors through giving it the distributorship, replacing its 40 years partner. 

"We are now making the previous dealer's annual sales in a month, and we already have emerged as the market leader in the 150 cc motorcycles segment." 

Furthermore, Yamaha, for the first time in its long global history, handed over its manufacturing technology to a distributor company and ACI Motors is running its local Yamaha factory with an annual capacity of 1 lakh units. 

"We picked the quality of Yamaha motorcycles and ran the business here in the ACI Motors way. 52% of the Yamaha riders come back to our service centres even after the warranty period ends and Yamaha said this is their global highest rate of customer retention." 

The brand is giving its other products - such as musical instruments, engines-  to us to officially sell in the country, he added.

At the two wheeler manufacturing plant, robot welding would yield over 2% error, which the ACI Motors team has brought down to around 0.5% despite manual welding by humans.  

The most sophisticated machines needed for servicing modern Yamaha bikes are given for free to all the Bangladeshi dealers, regardless if they are in big cities or in rural areas. ACI invests in it for the quality of the services across the country. 

Chinese Foton, the world's top commercial vehicle brand by volume, tied up with ACI Motors after trying four local players over a decade and ACI Motors is selling more Foton a year than what the previous four distributors together did in over a decade. 

In fact, ACI Motors won three of the five Foton global awards last year due to its excellence as a distributor.

The success is attributed to ACI Motor's care for its customers, said Subrata Ranjan Das. 

"Unlike some other local distributors, our team guarantees the Foton commercial vehicle owners that the vehicle would not deprive them of revenue due to parts shortage, technical breakdown."

The same holds true about the industrial generator customers. The parliament building and two-thirds of the metro rail stations are ACI Motors' generator customers. 

In Bangladesh, most of the global brands' after sale services had proven insufficient, but by ensuring its quality ACI Motors has demonstrated their worth to an increasing number of global brands, said its ED. 

A Sonalika buyer can own the tractors at 20% down payment and if they maintain the unit, the first 18 months are enough to recoup the price of the tractor price, whose lifespan is 10 years.  

The company has also introduced rice harvesters and transplanters from Yanmar – a global giant in agro machineries- and users know how their yield improves. 

"We became the largest export destination of Yanmar in the world in the agri- machinery sector within two years of operation though the company is 120-years-old," Subata said. 

He believes farm mechanisation has a big role to play in the coming years as the country needs efficient agriculture while farm labour shortage already has emerged as a concern. 

"Bangladesh uses less than 2 kilowatts of mechanical power per hectare of farmland, which is over 10 in China and over 20 in Japan. So, the revolution is yet to come."

Over 13% rice was wasted due to manual harvesting, almost the entire of which could be saved using combined harvesters. 

On the other hand, rice transplanter boosts yield by double digits and also helps early ripening of paddy which is crucial for the haor area. 

ACI Motors is currently also working on mechanisation of other crops and dairy farming. 

"With our product and services we helped grow thousands of entrepreneurs across the country, who are contributing a lot to the national economy," he said, adding that the company would be gradually expanding its local manufacturing portfolio that already includes two-wheeler manufacturing and agro machineries. 

Bangladesh / Economy / Top News

ACI Motors Limited / ACI Group / customer

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • Illustration: TBS
    'Where is the transparency in economic activities of this government?' asks Debapriya
  • Infographic: TBS
    Deadlock over key reforms: Is there any solution in sight?
  • Representational image. Photo: Collected
    Saudi Arabia to celebrate Eid-ul-Adha on 6 June

MOST VIEWED

  • 6 troubled banks to be merged by July, govt to take ownership
    6 troubled banks to be merged by July, govt to take ownership
  • Selim RF Hussain. Sketch: TBS
    BRAC Bank MD Selim RF Hussain resigns
  • Bangladesh Army’s operations director Brigadier General M Nazim-ud-Daula talks to reporters at Army Headquarters on 26 May 2025. Photo: BSS
    Govt, army not at odds, working in unison: Brig Gen Nazim
  • Army reaffirms commitment to stand by the people, warns of strict action against mob violence
    Army reaffirms commitment to stand by the people, warns of strict action against mob violence
  • FY26 budget: Black money whitening in real estate to stay – but with 5x taxes
    FY26 budget: Black money whitening in real estate to stay – but with 5x taxes
  • KEPZ
    Gas crisis criticism: Petrobangla contradicts business leaders, says supply rose by 21% compared to last year

Related News

  • How IDLC ensures corporate governance and customer trust
  • MoU signing ceremony with ACI Motors Limited 
  • 30,000km with the Yamaha FZ-S V3.0: A blend of refinement and control
  • Yamaha celebrates 7 years with ACI Motors
  • ACI Foundation to buy 1.35 lakh ACI Ltd shares

Features

In recent years, the Gor-e-Shaheed Eidgah has emerged as a strong contender for the crown of the biggest Eid congregation in the country, having hosted 600,000 worshippers in 2017. Photo: TBS

Gor-e-Shaheed Boro Maath: The heart of Dinajpur

1d | Panorama
The Hili Land Port, officially opened in 1997 but with trade roots stretching back to before Partition, has grown into a cornerstone of bilateral commerce.

Dhaka-Delhi tensions ripple across Hili’s markets and livelihoods

2d | Panorama
Photo: Collected

Desk goals: Affordable ways to elevate your study setup

2d | Brands
Built on a diamond-type frame, the Hornet 2.0 is agile but grounded. PHOTO: Asif Chowdhury

Honda Hornet 2.0: Same spirit, upgraded sting

2d | Wheels

More Videos from TBS

Trump delays 50% tariffs on EU goods

Trump delays 50% tariffs on EU goods

5h | Others
Eid may be celebrated in Bangladesh on June 7

Eid may be celebrated in Bangladesh on June 7

5h | TBS Today
TSMC begins construction on US semiconductor plant

TSMC begins construction on US semiconductor plant

5h | Others
Trump's tariff policy shock: US dollar dominance under threat

Trump's tariff policy shock: US dollar dominance under threat

7h | Others
EMAIL US
contact@tbsnews.net
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Advertisement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2025
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - oped.tbs@gmail.com

For advertisement- sales@tbsnews.net