Yamaha sees ten-fold jump in market share by 2012

SILIGURI: Two-wheeler giant Yamaha has set an aggressive target of increasing its market share in India by ten times by end-2011. Besides product launches, growth in the number of outlets is also on the cards.

Despite an accumulated loss of around Rs 1,000 crore, the company still enjoys patronage of the parent. "We are in the process of returning to the black," Yutaka Tex Terada, director, India Yamaha Motor Pvt Ltd, told ET in an exclusive interview.

"Yamaha has already shown positive performance in the two-wheeler segment in India with around 80% cumulative growth in Jan-May ‘09 over the same period last year. Monthwise, February was the best, giving 169% growth," Mr Terada added.

As industry figures go, two-wheeler penetration level in India is still low at just over 30 units per 1000 citizens. Sales of two-wheelers, including scooters but barring battery-run machines, achieved 15% growth in ‘05-06. Year ‘08-09 had a sales figure of around 8.5 million. With the skyrocketing trend in recent years, two-wheeler sales in India are expected to cross 10 million by 2010.

Steady growth in Indian economy, at 8% per annum, is expected to benefit us, Mr Terada said. Though it sounds aggressive, we are targeting 10% market share by 2012 from the existing 1%, Mr Terada added.

Source:ET

Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki Bike Sales Up in May 2009

Details Despite a challenging market environment for financing two-wheelers, Japanese two-wheeler companies of Honda, Yamaha and Suzuki sold more bikes in May compared with the same month last year.


Bajaj Auto, however, showed a decline in sales. Honda Motorcycles and Scooters India, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Honda Motor Co, posted a 34.69 per cent increase in its motorcycle sales at 39,495 units for May. The companys scooter sales grew by 6 per cent to 60,475 units.


We are ramping up production for the new Activa because of which the growth has been lower. In case of motorcycles there has been good demand across all segments. We expect the demand to continue at a similar level in the coming months, said Mr Naresh Rattan, who heads marketing at Honda Motorcycles and Scooters India.


Bajaj Auto on Tuesday reported an 8 per cent drop in motorcycle sales during May at 1.65 lakh units as against 1.79 lakh units in the same period a year ago. The numbers include both domestic and exports. The companys overall exports fell by 3 per cent to 58,682 units. Bajaj said it will launch a new Pulsar in the month to revive sales.

The Indian unit of Yamaha posted an 82 per cent increase in sales at 16,952 units last month against 9,295 units in the year-ago period.


The company said the growth was mainly because of its high performance bikes such as FZ-S, FZ-16 and YZF-R15. Suzuki Motorcycles sold 12,734 units during the month, a 17 per cent increase against 10,845 units in the same month last year.

The Hindu Business Line