Royal Enfield looks for enhanced presence in US, Europe

Eicher Motors is pushing to enhance global brand presence of its niche motorcycle Royal Enfield in developed markets like the US, UK and Europe to become a leading player in the mid-sized motorcycling segment.
Besides, the company is ramping up dealer network in smaller towns in India and will add 100 showrooms to take its total dealerships to 500 by 2015.
"We have set our sights on becoming the leaders in global mid-sized motorcycling segment and we are working towards it persistently," Eicher Motors Managing Director and CEO Siddhartha Lal told reporters here.
He further said: "We are doing ground work for our brand in the USA. The GT model is done. It has given us opening to new dealers. It's all about using right brand and channel."

At present, Royal Enfield exports 1,000 bikes to US annually.
In order to promote the Royal Enfield brand in the developed markets, the company has been participating in events like Goodwood Revival Festival in the UK, Bonneville Speed Trails in the US. In August, it had appointed KSR group as its distributor in Germany.

Also to enhance its designing capabilities, Royal Enfield had recently roped in globally acclaimed motorcycle designer Pierre Terblanche, who had worked with Ducati for almost 10 years.
On network expansion in India, Lal said: "By the end of the next year, we should have around 500 dealers. We had 300 in the beginning of 2014 and it will be around 400 by the end of this year."

The company is focusing on C and D class towns which were earlier not viable for dealership because low sales, he said, adding Royal Enfield would reach around 150 cities and towns by 2015-end, up from the current 100 cities.
Lal said Royal Enfield is also expected to complete the second phase of expansion of its Oragadam plant by mid of next year, following which it would have a installed capacity of 6,00,000 units per year.
It has completed the first phase of its Oragadam plant and has also acquired land near it for any future expansion.
When asked if the company would have assembly units overseas, he said: "As much as possible we would like to supply from Chennai, unless taxes are enormous constraint, we would like to supply from Chennai. For example, in Brazil taxes are enormous, and (it) is uneconomical to sell a full bike. We have to figure out model where we have to do least amount of local assembling.