Brands
Maruti Suzuki hits record gear with 22.55 lakh vehicles in 2025
NEW DELHI: Maruti Suzuki has ended 2025 on a high note, rolling out a record-breaking 22.55 lakh vehicles, its highest-ever production in a single calendar year.
The milestone marks the second year in a row that India’s largest carmaker has crossed the 20 lakh mark, a clear sign of steady demand at home and abroad. The figure includes vehicles made for domestic buyers, exports and original equipment manufacturer supplies.
Popular models did much of the heavy lifting. Fronx, Baleno, Swift, Dzire and Ertiga emerged as the top five contributors to production volumes during the year, reflecting Maruti Suzuki’s ability to stay closely aligned with consumer preferences across segments.
Calling the achievement a collective effort, managing director and CEO Hisashi Takeuchi credited employees and supplier partners for powering the growth story. He said a high level of localisation has helped the company scale up while maintaining global quality standards, reinforcing India’s position as a competitive automotive manufacturing hub.
Maruti Suzuki’s journey began in 1983 with a single plant in Gurugram. Over the decades, it has steadily expanded its footprint to include facilities in Manesar and Kharkhoda in Haryana, along with the recently amalgamated Gujarat plant. Today, the company manufactures 17 models and more than 650 variants across its network of modern plants.
The road ahead looks equally ambitious. Maruti Suzuki plans to raise its manufacturing capacity to four million units a year, aiming to meet rising domestic demand while strengthening its presence in international markets.
Brands
Faber-Castell India appoints Sunaina Haldar as director – marketing
With stints at Tata, SleepyCat and ADF Foods under her belt, Haldar is primed to redraw Faber-Castell’s brand story
MUMBAI: Faber-Castell India has poached Sunaina Haldar from ADF Foods, appointing her director – marketing as the German stationery brand looks to muscle up in a category that is rapidly reinventing itself around creativity and self-expression.
Haldar hit the ground running. “My first couple of weeks have been incredibly energising, understanding consumers, visiting markets, engaging with retailers and immersing myself into the world of Faber-Castell Group,” she said.
She arrives with considerable firepower. At ADF Foods, Haldar ran marketing across India and international markets for a portfolio spanning Ashoka, Aeroplane, Camel and ADF Soul. Before that, she was vice-president – marketing at direct-to-consumer mattress brand SleepyCat, where she helmed brand, content and performance marketing. Her résumé also includes a stint leading marketing, new product development and CRM for Tata SmartFoodz at Tata Consumer Products, no small proving ground.
Between corporate roles, Haldar also operated as a fractional CMO for early-stage startups, building marketing strategy and operational structures from scratch, a signal that she knows how to move fast with limited resources.
With 18 years straddling FMCG, D2C and the startup world, Haldar now takes the reins at a brand that has long owned the classroom but is clearly hungry for the living room. In a stationery market where the pencil has become a lifestyle statement, Faber-Castell has picked someone who knows exactly how to sell that story.
