Bogged by labour issues and weak consumer sentiment, Maruti Suzuki, reported a decline of 20.8 per cent in its sales for the month of September, at 85,565 units as against 108,006 units in the same period of last fiscal.

The company admitted that the disruption of its production facility at Manesar, Haryana, due to labour issues had severely hampered and impacted sales and distribution of the Maruti Suzuki vehicles. In a statement the company issued it said, “The disruption in production owing to the labour issue at the company’s Manesar plant during September adversely impacted the sales numbers during the month.”

The Manesar plant manufactures Swift, SX4 and A-star cars. Segment-wise, the company reported a decline of 23.5 per cent in its best-selling compact class brands such as Maruti 800, Alto, A-Star and WagonR with the total sales at 37,324 as against 48,780 in the same period of 2009-10.

The sales of mid-size compact car segment, which includes brands such as Swift, Estilo and Ritz, came down by 9.3 per cent at 19,722 units as compared to 21,749 units in the corresponding month of last fiscal. Cars such as Dzire too reported a decrease of 9.9 per cent in sales at 9,411 units from 8,566 units reported in September, 2010.

Sales of sedan segment cars including SX4 declined dramatically by 90 per cent in the month under-review and stood at 196 units as compared to 1,965 units in the same period in 2010.