Mahindra Two Wheelers to ramp its capacity

Company also open for tie-up for brand & technology: Pawan Goenka

Mahindra Two Wheelers, part of the $16.2 billion Mahindra Group, is planning to ramp its production, on the backdrop of increasing demand for its Centuro model and to support the upcoming 6-8 vehicles launches over the next two years. The company also said it is open for tie-up for brand and technology.

In October, the Group has announced its move to shift management of the loss making two wheeler business to its automotive and tractor businesses, which comes under Pawan Goenka, executive director and president of Automotive & Farm Equipment Sector.

Speaking to Business Standard Goenka, who was in Chennai last week to participate in SAEINDIA’s SIMCOMVEC 2013 said two-wheeler industry is just about ok and it is not de-growing like the four-wheeler industry and there is marginal growth.

“But for Mahindra since we are an entry level player right now the industry size is not important, what more important is how our growth is. Good thing for us is, our last offering has done extremely well, we have a waiting list right now”.

The company is selling about 24,000 vehicles a month and ramping up its capacity to 45,000, which is a good beginning for the company, he adds.

As far as manufacturing capacity, already it was ramped up to 1200 vehicles per day from 500-600, when the company started and by end of this fiscal, the company expects to increase to 1700-1800 vehicles a day.

Some investment would require for the balance of capacity, which may not be a large one, once the company reaches out to reach 45,000-50,000 units then it would look at larger investment, said Goenka. During the month of November the company has reported 127% growth to 24,245 units as compared to 10,676 units, a year ago.

On the upcoming launches, he said, the company is looking at products for the volume segment mainly.

“We are going to launch slew of new products in the next two years and hopefully Centuro will give the momentum which we need and will make the company as a significant two-wheeler player in India,” said Goenka. In just six weeks of the bike launch, the company received over 30,000 plus bookings for its Centuro.

The company will have products both in motorcycle and scooter categories and offerings will be balanced. Scooter segment is doing well and its kind of growing at good phase and Mahindra do expect that the new scooter launch, which is scheduled for next fiscal, will put the company firmly in the scooter space, he added.

On the motorcycle again the focus will be on the mass segment, which is 100-125 CC segment.

“If Mahindra is going to be in any business vertical, we will be a significant player.” said Goenka, who refused to comment on company's target in terms of market share.

To a question on whether the company is open for joining hands or for acquisition to boost two-wheeler segment, he said, “anything is open to us, we don't have clearly defined boundary saying we will not have tie-up or we will have tie-up. We are doing things on our own now, we always look at opportunities to tie-up for brand and technology and if we get right opportunities we will tie-up. At any given point of time we are in dialogue for all our business,” said Goenka.

Companies Nov2012-13 per cent Growth
Hero MotoCorp	502,305	530,530	6
Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India	223,145	319,080	39
TVS Motors	166,783	155,604	-7
Suzuki
Mahindra Two Wheelers	10,676	24,245	127
Yamaha	44,688	57,160	28
Total	947,597	1,086,619	15
Domestic + exports
Source:- Companies