Motorcycle maker Royal Enfield Motors will go solo in its global journey even as other Indian two-wheeler companies such as TVS Motor, Bajaj and Hero have either acquired global brands or tied-up with them for their foray into the global mid-size motorcycle segment (250cc-750cc).

The company, which is part of Eicher Motors Ltd, said it has made its mark in several global markets in building Royal Enfield brand with its own capacity, capability and competence on par with global companies.

“Had you asked me some years ago, I would have said yes. But now we don’t need any partnership as we have made inroads into several markets. We have made tremendous progress and we are building on that with a renewed momentum,” Siddhartha Lal, Managing Director, Eicher Motors, said during an interaction organised on the eve of new bike launch on Friday.

“We are working on creating an ecosystem to nurture motorcycling. Our objective is to become a global Indian consumer brand,” he added.

Global strategy

Lal stated that with a well-focussed agenda, Royal Enfield, which will be celebrating 120 years of its motorcycle business in 2021, has achieved profitable growth and built a resilient business model in the past two decades. While the company has been an EBITDA-leading company for the past 10 years, it has cash of about a billion-dollar now.

Vinod Dasari, Chief Executive Officer of Royal Enfield, said the company was driving with a three-pronged global strategy with a vision of securing one-fifth of sales from international markets over a period of time.

“We have identified rich and developed markets, developing markets (India like nations) and long-term markets (like Africa),” he said.

Dasari explained that the company could achieve success and develop markets with the right business model. “First we evaluate whether customers enjoy our products and then ensure that distributors are profitable. Only after these two things, we scale up our business in each country,” he added.

Lalit Malik, Chief Commercial Officer, said while its bike sales have seen significant growth in markets such as Thailand, South Korea, Australia & New Zealand, Asia Pacific in the past four years, more than four-fold growth was witnessed in the Americas region (comprising the US, Brazil, Argentina & Columbia) during the period, driven by its bikes such as Himalayan and Twins. It is also gaining strong traction in developed markets such as UK, France and Germany – where its annual sales are hitting 2000-3000 bikes in those markets.

Dasari said the company has leveraged the digital technology in a big way as it gets about 60 per cent of enquiries in the Indian market through online mode, up from 10-15 per cent earlier, and the conversion from digital enquiries have also doubled. “Now bookings are back to pre-Covid levels,” he added.

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