Despite Covid, Hero MotoCorp sells 1.4 mn two-wheelers in festive season

The festive season witnessed strong customer preference for Destini and Pleasure scooters, resulting in high double-digit growth for the two models

Two-wheeler market leader Hero MotoCorp on Wednesday said it sold more than 14 lakh units of motorcycles and scooters in retail sales during the festive season.

Despite severe disruptions due to COVID-19 this year, the good retail off-take during the 32-day festival period -- spread between the first day of Navratra and the concluding day after Bhai Duj -- was 98 per cent of the festive season volumes sold by the company in 2019 and 103 per cent compared to the same period in 2018, Hero MotoCorp said in a statement.

The company said it "sold more than 14 lakh units of motorcycles and scooters, in retail sales during the just concluded festive season, thereby continuing to gain market share and strengthen its leadership."

The festival season retails were driven by the strong performance of its popular models across segments, including the 100cc Splendor+ and HF Deluxe, 125cc motorcycles Glamour and Super Splendor and the Xtreme 160R and the XPulse range in the premium segment, it added.

The Glamour model in its BS-VI avatar continues to gain volumes in new markets.

The festive season also witnessed strong customer preference for Destini and Pleasure scooters, resulting in high double-digit growth for the two models, it said.

Hero MotoCorp further said the robust festive season sales helped to reduce vehicle stocks at its dealerships to less than four weeks, the lowest ever post-festive inventory.

On the outlook, the company said the news on rapid development of COVID-19 vaccines is likely to enable a faster rebound of the global economy in the coming months.

"The positive forecast by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projecting close to double-digit growth for the Indian economy in FY'22 is likely to boost customer sentiments in general and the two-wheeler sector in particular.

"The slew of recent measures announced by the Government should also help accelerate recovery and aid core sectors to rebound fast," it said.