Escorts Kubota bets on new plant & models to chart comeback strategy

Five years after Japan's Kubota Corp took majority control of Escorts, the merged entity-Escorts Kubota-is struggling to make tangible market share gains in an intensely competitive Indian tractor market. The country's fourth largest tractor maker trailed the broader industry's more than 20% growth last fiscal year. The company has lost ground consistently since the merger.

Escorts Kubota's market share slipped to 10.8% in the first ten months of FY26 from 12.9% in FY22, according to company filings. In the first nine months of FY26, the company's domestic tractor sales grew 11% to 96,550 units-roughly half the industry's 20% increase. Exports though were a bright spot, jumping 54% to 4,863 units, outpacing industry's 8.7% rise.

Both Nikhil Nanda, chairman and managing director, and deputy MD Akira Kato are candid about the turnaround taking longer than expected.


"We needed time to align the strengths of both sides-the agility, flexibility, and low cost of India, and the strengths of Japan-to create something new together," said Kato.

The recent launch of the Promaxx tractor model, under Farmtrac, offered an early glimpse of what that collaboration can deliver, said Nanda.

Demand exceeded projections that supply couldn't keep pace in the first four states during its initial rollout. "Even in the selective four states, the volume we were doing was what we thought we would do in the entire India," said Nanda.

That process meant first rebuilding systems from the ground up-product development, procurement, manufacturing, and a quality-oriented corporate culture. "We had to establish a new system and a new corporate culture-one focused on delivering the highest level of quality in each segment in India. Finally, we did it," Kato said.

The Kubota brand has been the deeper, structural drag, the management acknowledged on a post-earnings investor call recently. A limited two-model lineup, heavy import dependence on components including engines, and the resulting cost disadvantage has left the brand priced well above local competition. The portfolio addresses only 40-50% of the addressable market, concentrated in South and West, with little presence in the North and Central India.

"The issue is on the product side-the product lineup is not strong," the company said.

Geography compounded the problem. "Escorts is strong in the northern market but weak in the South and East-where the business is growing," said Kato. "We have potential there, but we didn't have the right products to match the conditions for paddy and rice fields."

That gap is being addressed. New models are being launched this fiscal year. The broader fix lies in building a fully localised Indian platform under Kubota.