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With exports on a roll, the latest being two orders for a total 1.75 lakh bikes from Sri Lanka, one executed, and the other to be delivered in the next 3-4 months, Bajaj Auto is now focusing on increasing its share in the domestic motorcycle market.
The Pune-based motorcycle major has seen its exports grow consistently over the last few quarters, and at the end of second quarter this fiscal, overseas markets accounted for 49 per cent of the total number of units (both two and three wheelers) the company sold.
During October and November, while Bajaj’s domestic bike sales declined 3 per cent and 6 per cent, respectively, in comparison to the same month of 2013, and total sales remained flat, exports grew 15 per cent and 24 per cent, respectively.
Its share in the Indian bike market also dipped to a low of 15 per cent in July from 20 per cent in April, and stood around 18 per cent by November end.
Growing exports In the current quarter too, the company has seen particularly good growth in all its export markets with Africa, Latam (without Brazil), South Asia and West Asia doing particularly well. Moreover, BAL has still not entered Brazil, and is actively developing plans to make a strong entry into this large two-wheeler market.
Tie-up with Kawasaki It is also collaborating with Kawasaki for the ASEAN markets, primarily the Philippines and Indonesia. In response to an email query on whether exports are soon set to overtake domestic sales, S Ravikumar, Vice-President, Business Development, said: “We are not monitoring such ratios specifically, but we estimate that the domestic business should be still ahead of that in the rest of world.
“There are specific initiatives to shore up the domestic market share.”
He declined to elaborate on the nature of the initiatives, though in an interview to a TV channel earlier this month, Managing Director Rajiv Bajaj had said that four new bike launches had been planned in the January-April 15 period, to help grow domestic motorcycle market share to 22 per cent.
“Our vision is to be a global force in the motorcycle industry and one of the metrics which define the vision is market share.
“Domestic and ROW ratios are a consequence and not the aim,” Ravikumar said.
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