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Bajaj Auto Eyes 20% Domestic Market Share In The Next Two Quarters

Bajaj Auto plans to increase its domestic market share to 20% from current 16.3%.



An employee of Bajaj Auto Limited puts the finishing touches to Bajaj Pulsar (Photographer: Abhijit Bhatlekar/Bloomberg News) 
An employee of Bajaj Auto Limited puts the finishing touches to Bajaj Pulsar (Photographer: Abhijit Bhatlekar/Bloomberg News) 

Buoyed by strong performance in the first quarter of this fiscal, Bajaj Auto Ltd. is planning to increase its share to 20 percent in domestic motorcycle market in the next two quarters.

Besides, with the African markets rebounding after witnessing downturn for nearly three years, the Pune-based firm expects to continue the momentum of high double-digit growth witnessed in the first quarter, said a senior company official.

“In the domestic market our current market share is 16.3 percent. Our target is to expand it to around 20 percent in the next two quarters,” said S Ravikumar, Bajaj Auto President-Business Development and Assurance.

In the first three months of the current fiscal, Bajaj Auto’s motorcycle sales grew 39 percent to 5.94 lakh units in the domestic market. The total industry sales of motorcycles during the quarter stood at 36.51 lakh units, according to SIAM data.

While base effect played a role in the first quarter, our sales growth has been buoyed by our aggressive play in the entry-level segment with CT 100 motorcycle, which has been our price warrior. We also maintained a targeted approach to increase our Pulsar sales.
S Ravikumar, President-Business Development and Assurance, Bajaj Auto Ltd.
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The company’s CT 100 model sales grew 76 percent year-on-year to over 1.9 lakh units during the quarter.

Going forward, Ravikumar said Bajaj Auto would continue the approach while taking “product actions” on other brands such as Platina, Avenger and V, without disclosing details.

Bajaj Auto clocked highest-ever quarterly exports of 5.38 lakh units in the first quarter as against 4.09 lakh units in the year-ago period, registering a growth of 31 percent. “This is mainly Africa-led growth, although we have done well in the Philippines as well. Major markets like Nigeria and Egypt have rebounded with all macro-economic factors stabilised after nearly three years of downturn,” Ravikumar said.

In Nigeria the company’s sales more than doubled to over 1.19 lakh units in the first quarter from nearly 46,000 units in the corresponding quarter last fiscal. Similarly, exports to Egypt also stood at around 42,000 units, up from from about 19,000 units in the first quarter last fiscal.

Ravikumar said the company has also entered a new market, Malaysia where it now sells Pulsar and Dominar brand of bikes. “Even in relatively new markets like Cambodia and Iraq, where we sell three-wheelers, we are picking up. On the whole, all our export markets are looking up,” he said.

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