Royal Enfield to invest Rs 600 cr on new R&D units, expansion

Niche bike maker Royal Enfield, plans to invest Rs 600 crore during the current fiscal for product development, setting up of two R&D centres and expansion of manufacturing capacities in India and the UK.
The company sells various popular models like Bullet, Classic, Thunderbird and Continental GT.
"We will be investing Rs 600 crore towards product development, setting up of the two technical centres, in Leicestershire, UK and Chennai, enhancing our manufacturing capacity and market development activities across geographies," Eicher Motors Ltd Managing Director & CEO Siddhartha Lal said in statement.
The UK technology centre will be operational by the second half of 2016-17 while the Chennai centre will be operational by 2017-18, he added.

On manufacturing capacity, Lal said: "In FY 2016-17, we plan to manufacture 675,000 motorcycles."
On outook, he added, "Our immediate business outlook remains strong and Royal Enfield continues to grow consistently, competitively and profitably towards leading and expanding the mid-sized motorcycle segment globally."

For the quarter ended March 31, 2016, Royal Enfield posted its best ever performance. The Chennai-based firm sold 1,48,185 motorcycles, registering its best ever quarterly sales and posting a growth of 59.6 per cent over 92,845 motorcycles sold in the same period last year.
"Royal Enfield performed exceedingly well in the last quarter, bringing a phenomenal 2015-16 financial year to an end. This has been a milestone year for us with the launch of the Himalayan- our first ever completely ground-up motorcycle," Lal said.

The motorcycle has been extremely well received by the community and customers which is reflected in the company's strong order book, he added.
The company also strengthened retail footprint in India last fiscal with addition of 145 new dealerships, taking it to over 500 stores.