Honda upbeat on sales, aim 30% growth this year

Honda Motorcycle & Scooters India (HMSI) aims to achieve significantly higher-than-industry growth during the current financial year even as the Japanese two-wheeler firm continues to pose aggressive competition to overtake Bajaj Auto as the second largest two-wheeler firm in Indian market. Amid weakening momentum in two-wheeler sales in the country over the past few months, HMSI has had a good start with an average growth of 50 per cent in the first two months. While there are predictions that growth of two wheeler market in the current financial year will be about 10 per cent or less, HMSI bets on strong double-digit growth. “In the current financial year, we aim to sell 27.5 lakh units and register a growth of 30 per cent over previous year,” YS Guleria, vice-president (sales and marketing), HMSI told Financial Chronicle. While Hero MotoCorp and TVS Motor reported marginal growth in total two wheeler sales and Bajaj Auto reported 6 per cent fall in May when compared with the previous month, HMSI has reported 11 per cent growth. Though scooters still account for major chunk of Honda’s sales, the company has been gradually boosting its motorcycle volumes, supported by new launches and the second factory. “FY12 was a year signalling the dawn of new era for HMSI as ‘only Honda’ in India. With significant capacity addition of 12 lakh units annually, success of new models like CBR 250R and overwhelming response to existing products we sold 21.07 lakh units in FY12,” he said. Replying to the opportunity to grab the No 2 position in Indian two-wheeler market, Guleria said: “Honda does not aim at overtaking any competition but serving its customers faster. We are the only two-wheeler company to grow at astonishing rate of nearly 50 per cent, while industry average is in the lowest double digit. Now with the launch of Dream Yuga, Honda will continue to lead the industry growth.” Elaborating on the plans for the year he said, the 100-110cc motorcycle segment continues to show a growth pattern at the rate of 10 per cent CAGR for the last three years on a very high base volume, its an attractive business proposition for any manufacturer. With the Dream Yuga, we plan to enter and expand our customer base in entry-level motorcycle segment, which contributes roughly half of two-wheeler sales.