Smaller-capacity engine bikes don't figure in our India plans: Anoop Prakash

Interview with Managing Director, Harley Davidson India

Anoop Prakash, managing director of Harley-Davidson India, is optimistic about India's luxury bike market. The company has aggressive expansion plans for India, including manufacturing Harley Davidson's Street 750 in India and expanding its dealership network. Following the opening of a new dealership in Pune, he talks to Hrishikesh Joshi about the company's strategy. Edited excerpts:

There have been reports of Harley Davidson bringing smaller-capacity engine bikes to emerging markets, including India.

I, too, have heard this many times. These are all baseless reports. We do not have any plan to bring smaller-capacity engine bikes to emerging markets, including India.

What is your expansion plan for India?

Currently, Harley Davidson offers a range of 11 models from each of its five families-Sportster, Dyna, Softail, V-Rod and Touring-in the Indian market. We assemble nine Harley-Davidson models from our facility in Bawal, Haryana, on a CKD (completely-knocked-down) basis. We will use our plant in India to build the 'Street' models; the Harley-Davidson Street 750 will be manufactured from our Bawal plant. We have already made an additional investment for this venture. This will be operational by mid-2014. The Street 750 will first be launched in January 2014 in Goa, at the India Bike Week, and later, at the Delhi Auto Expo. We plan to manufacture 7,000-10,000 bikes simultaneously from the US and India.

Will you export from India?

We will export to markets such as Spain, Italy and Portugal. This will be started simultaneously with the launch of the Street 750, by mid-2014. Exports to Southeast Asia will not happen in the first year; we will evaluate the markets first.

How do you see India as a market through the next two-three years?

For India, the market is still developing. Since our retail operations in India in 2009, there are about 4,000 Harley-Davidson bikes on Indian roads. This may be attributed to the company's success in building a strong leisure motorcycle culture in India. In 2008, the market size was only 1,000 units. Now, we have grown to double-digit sales; Harley-Davidson holds 60 per cent market share in this segment. The annual growth rate will be about 20 per cent in the near future. In a city such as Pune, we have 150 customers and I am sure with this showroom, the number will grow in the future.

What about expanding the dealership network?

By the end of this year, we will open three more dealership centres in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Goa. In 2014, we plan to add three more dealerships. Tier-II cities such as Surat, Coimbatore, Calicut and Lucknow are also on our roadmap. Overall, we will have 16 dealers across India by the end of 2014.