Bajaj Auto has made a great business this fiscal in terms of sales and revenues. “We have strong brands in our portfolio and are reasonably confident that the next three years will see our annual numbers touch 10 million units,” Mr Rajiv Bajaj, Managing Director, told Business Line in an interview.
The country’s second largest producer of two wheelers plans to wrap up this current fiscal with 4.5 Mn units (But this figure also includes 3 wheelers).
In order to achieve this, the company is working on a fast track action mode with giving due importance to two of its flagship brands – Pulsar and the Discover. These were the brands which has been churning great business for the company over a few years. Among these two, Pulsar is the brand that the company always relies on. It is also to be mentioned that these two brands has considerably aided the company to triple its sales over the past three years.
Bajaj wrapped up 2008 – 09 at 2.2 Mn units, going up to 2.8 million in FY ’10 and over 3.8 million units in the Financial Year ’11. “Our starting point today is a lot stronger and more potent than what it was three years ago when we were still finding our way around,” said Mr Bajaj.
The company had produced 2.25 Mn units during the first half of this year and with the same momentum in pace, the company is planning to sell 4.5 Mn units. The company will see a lot of new launches in the following fiscal year. As we all know, Bajaj will be launching the much awaited KTM Duke 200 in India. Just to remind you, Bajaj holds around 40 per cent stake in KTM, which is an Austrian based company. Apart from the KTM Duke 200, there are also chances that Bajaj Auto will launch a refreshed Pulsar, though we are not very sure of. A new Discover might also be launched.
Apart from working merely on sales figures, Bajaj Auto is also focussing on profits, which is the main reason to run a business. It is also working to maintain the EBITDA consistently which is clocking 20 per cent for sometime now.
Mr. Bajaj also said, “We have worked very hard on our cost structure over the last two decades and even when (sales) numbers were low, the back-end was pretty much in place.” ‘Of the 1.4 lakh plus units sold every month, the combined numbers of the more contemporary Discover 125 and 150 are more than the 100cc’ states Business Line in a report.
“If at least 51 per cent of these customers are already part of the bigger Discover kitty, the shift will only increase in the coming months. This is precisely in line with our intention of growing our presence in the 125cc commuter space,” Mr Bajaj said.
Regards,
M.Naren.
Author – BikeAdvice.in
