The Hindu Business Line : TVS Motor to come back with new products in bike segment

The Chairman and Managing Director of TVS Motor Company, Mr Venu Srinivasan, on Thursday said that the company would "come back" with new products in the fastest growing segment of the motorcycle market.

Speaking to Business Line, Mr Srinivasan said that the company was working on a motorcycle for the "middle segment" which is today dominated by the Splendour of Hero Honda and the Discover of Bajaj.

He said this while answering a question on why TVS Motor was not able to close the gap in sales between it and Bajaj Auto as much as Bajaj had been able to narrow the gap between its own sales and that of the market leader, Hero Honda.

Indonesian venture

He did not want to divulge details of the new products. He said that TVS Motor had been focussing on products for the Indonesian venture, and hence could not bring in the right products into the mid-segment.

When the demand for the successful Victor model was tapering off, TVS Motor had planned that the next model, Centra, would take its place. This, however, did not happen. The company would have brought in another product but for its preoccupation with new products for Indonesia, Mr Srinivasan said.

He said that trial production in Indonesia would begin next month; commercial production could start from April next year.

The company also has plans for bringing in a 100-cc ungeared scooter, though not in the near future. Mr Srinivasan said that the TVS Scooty itself had evolved from a 60-cc to a 90-cc one and a vehicle of a higher capacity would only be a natural extension of the existing products.

One million mark

The year 2006-07 would be a milestone for TVS Motor as it is likely to achieve sales one million motorcycles. Last year, the company sold a little over 800,000 motorcycles. In the current year till October, the company has sold 615,325 motorcycles. Mr Srinivasan was confident of crossing the one-million mark in the current year.

He said that the company was likely to achieve a turnover of Rs 4,000 crore in the current year. It expected to reach a turnover of Rs 10,000 crore by 2010, he said.

China dumping

Mr Srinivasan said that the Chinese were dumping their motorcycles in the Asean and African markets. He noted that motorcycles were being sold at the price of raw materials, which was impossible, unless the sales were being subsidised. Asked how long the Chinese would continue to subsidise, he said, "long enough to hurt us."

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