Kinetic Doubles 2002-03 Bike Sales Target
Kinetic Engineering, the flagship of the Rs 1,200-crore Kinetic group, has more than doubled its sales target for motorcycles in 2002-03 to 1.25 lakh. During 2001-02, the company had sold around 45,000 motorcycles.
The company, which is planning to launch an entry level motorcycle, Boxer, next month, is targeting sales of 50,000 units for the Boxer this fiscal. The remaining sales are expected to come from the existing range of bikes --Challenger series bikes and its top-end GF 125, in addition to its proposed top end variant, GF 150.
Sulajja Motwani, joint managing director, said, "We are hoping to sell around 1.25 lakh bikes this year, against last year's target of 50,000. Of this, we expect Boxer sales to be around 50,000 units."
Kinetic has a technical collaboration with Hyosung Motors, South Korea, for motorcycles. The group, which manufactures mopeds, scooterettes, motorcycles and scooters, has increased its budget for marketing expenses this year to Rs 75 crore from around Rs 60 crore last fiscal.
A sizeable part of this would go towards marketing its four-stroke scooter, Nova, which was launched in Mumbai today, in addition to the Boxer.
Kinetic is taking on the Honda Activa with the Nova, which, at Rs 34,777 (ex-showroom Mumbai), is priced higher than the Activa. The company is expecting monthly sales of 8,000 units, an ambitious target according to analysts, for the Nova.
The company is targeting the male population with the Nova, and expects increased sales from northern India, which has traditionally been a weak market for Kinetic.
Among other product segments, the company is planning to reposition the Style as a 100cc scooter, and will be relaunched shortly as an entry-level offering.
Arun Firodia, group chairman pointed out that sales in the ungeared scooters had been holding steady for the past few years, and that only sales of geared, metal bodied scooters had fallen. "Our strategy in the scooters market is to expand the segment itself. We expect a sizeable resurgence in the scooter segment this year," he said.