The Hindu Business Line : Hero Honda bullish on premium segment; launches 150 cc Hunk

With the Hunk: Mr Brijmohan Lall Munjal, Chairman, Hero Honda Motors Ltd; with Mr. Pawan Munjal, Managing Director and CEO; Mr. T. Nakagawa, Joint Managing Director; and Mr Anil Dua, Senior Vice-President, Marketing and Sales, at the launch of 150cc motorcycle ‘Hunk’ , in the Capital on Wednesday.

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New Delhi, Oct. 17 In an attempt to corner a higher share in the premium-bike segment, Hero Honda Motors Ltd has launched a bike in the category.

“Premium-segment bikes still account for barely 14 per cent of the overall motorcycles market. We believe that there is potential for the market to expand in this segment,” said Mr Anil Dua, Vice-President, Sales and Marketing, at the launch of the 150 cc ‘Hunk’. Hero Honda has priced the kick-start model at Rs 55,000 as compared to self-start model at Rs 57,000. This is the fourth bike that the company launched in the premium segment after models like CBZ extreme, Karizma, and Achiever.

Focus segment

Mr Dua said that the company had doubled its market share as well as volumes in the premium segment in the last one year. Mr Pawan Munjal, Managing Director, Hero Honda, said, “Our focus will continue to remain on the 100 cc segment, which is still about two-third’s of the overall bike market. But looking at the progression of the customers to upgrade to higher models, we are focusing on the premium segment too.”

Festive season

Declining to elaborate on the sales outlook during the festive season Mr Dua said, “We expect a revival in sales during the festive season. There had been postponement in purchases due to interest rates. So we are hoping that in the festival season, customers may reconsider their decision.”

Hero Honda, that was to commence production at its new plant in Uttarakhand in August this year, would now be beginning it from April 2008 due to slowdown in the motorcycles market in the country.