Mahindra-backed motorcycle company Classic Legends, which resurrected iconic brands including Jawa, Yezdi and BSA, will invest ₹1,000 crore over the next three years to ramp up marketing, distribution and new product development. About 50 per cent of the new investments will be used for rolling out BSA bikes in the international markets, the other half will be used to strengthen the distribution and marketing in India. The company is also ready with its electric motorcyle and is set to launch in the UK soon. 

This is the first major investment being made by the company since it announced plans to relaunch the motorcycle brand Jawa in 2018. The fresh funding will be deployed from a combination of internal accruals, existing shareholders and external investors. 

Mahindra & Mahindra owns 60 per cent stake in Classic Legends, while the balance is held by Anupam Thareja’s Phi Capital and real estate developer Boman Irani. The three had come together to revive the iconic brands in 2018; however, the business was impacted by the Covid pandemic-linked disruptions in the supply chain. 

Anand Mahindra, Chairman, Mahindra Group, told businessline that though there were problems initially, he believes that the brands under Classic Legends have great products that have huge potential in the market. “When you are selling a product, it’s about lifestyle. When we launched the Scorpio, we faced many problems, many people wrote us off. Now look where we are. We would have given up a long time ago, if the product was wrong and nobody wanted the product.” 

Anupam Thareja, the Co-Founder of Classic Legends, told businessline that the aim is to build a Indian global company. “Every month, we are selling 4,000-5,000 units currently. Next year, we should be doubling this to 10,000.  We are targeting 20 per cent to come from exports.”

In February, the company launched its high-end 650 CC bike under BSA brand in the UK. This was followed by Germany, France, Italy, and Austria. “End of this week, we are launching Turkey, Norway, and the Czech Republic. Then we launch in the US and then to Japan,” Thareja said, adding that products under BSA will be primarily for the western market including North America, while Jawa will be rolled out in countries such as China, Poland, and Argentina.  All these bikes are being produced at Mahindra’s manufacturing facility in Pithampur near Indore in Madhya Pradesh. The company is also ready with its first electric motorbike, for which it has earmarked about ₹200 crore investment. 

In India, the focus will be to consolidate the existing portfolio of four Jawa and three Yezdi models. The company has 440 sales touch-points spread between 223 dealers. “Our target is very clear to get our dealers profitable. We told them two years ago that 50 per cent of them would make money, but I need 100 per cent to make money,” Thareja said. 

The company will expand its presence to 500 touch points soon and to 750 by the end of next year.

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