100cc bike will drive Suzuki soon

Suzuki Motorcycle India will soon enter the entry-level 100 cc motorcycle market in the country as the Japanese firm looks to become a major player in world's second largest two-wheeler market. The leader in the niche super bike market, where Suzuki Hayabusa outsells every other big bike, expects its two-wheeler sales to pick up significantly once it doubles the annual production capacity to 5.4 lakh units, at the Gurgaon Plant, Suzuki Motorcycle India's vice-president (Marketing & Sales) Atul Gupta told ET in an interview.

Atul Gupta: Suzuki has a huge brand equity, that goes without saying. But, at the same time, I believe it would be fair to draw comparisons only within the two-wheeler industry. Suzuki Motorcycle has shown higher marked growth within the segment it is present and our sales are growing at the faster pace than the domestic market, but any noticeable change will happen once we double our capacity in Gurgaon and draw sizeable volumes in the local market.

What are the products that you plan to roll out from the new plant to drive Suzuki Motorcycle to the next level?

Atul Gupta : The current growth is led by scooters, where, in the mid-size segment, our market share has increased to 25% from 10% in the past one year. We are market leaders in the super bike category, with Hayabusa, Intruder, Bandit and GSX-R1000 giving us a huge lead over other global companies like Harley Davidson, Honda and Yamaha. Now, we are geared up to expand and introduce products for the mass volume segment like 100 cc bikes that will impact the Indian market with huge volumes in our kitty.

Hero Honda and Bajaj Auto together are likely to produce around 9-10 million motor cycles in the next fiscal. Suzuki Motorcycle's target is only half a million. How do you hope to build up volumes?

Atul Gupta : We are certainly looking at building on our volumes. The entry into the mass segment 100 cc bikes, that form around 50% of the 10 million Indian two-wheeler market, will help us leverage the brand and generate sales.

What is your road map to become a major player in India where young people now drive consumer demand?

Atul Gupta : There are two key areas of focus for Suzuki: product quality and customer service. We will continue to focus on launching India-engineered products, keeping customers in mind. We are steadily building a loyal base of customers and would continue to expand by ensuring high customer satisfaction levels. A strong and steadily growing distribution network will be our strength. Our final objective is to provide a varied range of products to Indian customers. Our strategy would be based on the core philosophy of making 'value-packed products' that generate 'excitement'.