Suzuki Motorcycle plans to expand production at Gurgaon unit by 25%

Aims to sell 500,000 two-wheelers this fiscal; eyes new export markets

Suzuki Motorcycle India Ltd (SMIL) is planning to expand its production capacity at its Gurgaon plant in Haryana by 25-30 per cent from the current 500,000 units per annum. The company, however, did not wish to disclose the investment planned on the expansion.

Atul Gupta, executive vice-president, SMIL said, "We aim to sell around 500,000 units during this fiscal, growing by around 20 per cent over last year. Currently, the production capacity at the Gurgaon plant is around 500,000 two-wheelers working in two shifts. We are planning to expand that by 25-30 per cent." He, however, did not wish to comment on the investment planned for expansion. SMIL has also announced a plan of setting up a 500,000 units per annum plant in Rohtak in Haryana.

The company currently enjoys a 4 per cent market share on a all-India basis. Gujarat is its biggest market, where it enjoys a cumulative market share (combining scooters and bikes) of around 6 per cent. For scooters only, the market share is much higher at around 20 per cent, while for motorbikes it is around 1 per cent, Gupta informed adding that around 13 per cent of the net production is sold in Gujarat.

SMIL is selling around 40,000 two-wheelers per month this year, of which around 30,000 units are of scooters, he said. Around 5,000 units are sold in Gujarat per month, of which only 700 units are of motorcycles and the rest are scooters.

Meanwhile, the company has also started exporting its two-wheelers from last year to countries like Columbia and Nepal. Gupta said, "We are also looking at tapping new export markets, like Sri Lanka and Bangladesh by March 2014. This fiscal so far we have exported around 2,000 units."

The company has a current product portfolio of five two-wheelers; two scooters (Access and Swish) and three bikes (GS 150R, Hayate, Slingshot Plus) apart from its superbikes. Gupta informed that the company plans to launch two more models during next fiscal, both in the scooters and motorbike segments.