It is the only Indo-Japanese bike alliance that continues to go strong after nearly three decades.
Perhaps, the success of the Bajaj Auto-Kawasaki partnership can be attributed to a business model, where each company gives the other enough breathing space. Hence, Kawasaki is independently working out its India manufacturing plans, and is zeroing in on a location for its bikes.
In the meantime, Bajaj Auto is helping out with the local retail plans of its Japanese partner’s powerful Ninja motorcycle from its top-end stores. Kawasaki has been a reliable ally for its Indian counterpart’s overseas operations, especially ASEAN and parts of Latin America. The two recently announced their plans for Indonesia following a successful partnership in the Philippines.
INDONESIA, PHILIPPINES
Bajaj Auto had entered Indonesia, almost immediately after the Philippines in 2004. The difference, in terms of market results, could not have been starker. “In the Philippines, where Kawasaki was partner, we have a 40 per cent share, while this was minuscule in Indonesia where we decided to go it alone,” Rajiv Bajaj, Managing Director, told Business Line.
It took the company some years to realise that things were not going to work unless the retail strategy was re-vamped. Bajaj Auto is now confident that Indonesia can replicate the success story of the Philippines, thanks largely to the presence of a strong partner in Kawasaki.
Quite unlike Honda or Yamaha, this Japanese company confines its skills to big bikes and everything that is fast and powerful. As a result, Kawasaki’s showrooms essentially house 650cc plus bikes, which effectively means that the volumes are hardly adequate to feed the network.
PULSAR, DISCOVER
This is where Bajaj Auto’s relatively smaller bikes like the Pulsar and Discover can supplement volumes and make the operations viable. “From our point of view, it makes sense to target those markets where this business model will work,” Bajaj says.
For the moment, ASEAN and Brazil are the best bets going forward with Kawasaki. On its own, Bajaj Auto is confident of handling South Asia, Africa and parts of Latin America. Its Austrian entity KTM (in which it has a 47 per cent stake) can cater to the US, Europe, Japan and Australia.
The company has decided to focus on motorcycles alone considering that it only has a 10 per cent share of the world market. “Actually, the idea is to keep things simple. There is nothing daring about this strategy as it is the most obvious thing to do,” Bajaj says.
Equally, the focus on motorcycles does not mean that there is no room for creativity.
“We have to adapt and evolve with the market while keeping the bike strategy intact. Hence, the bells and whistles are fine so long as we stay true to motorcycles,” he adds.
