Triumph Motor pitches for incentive to cos with assembly units

: Triumph Motorcycles India, subsidiary of British iconic motorcycle brand Triumph, today said the government should provide incentives to companies having assembly operations in the country.

The company currently has an assembly unit (Completely Knocked Down facility) at Manesar, Haryana with 95 per cent of the motorcycles assembled there.

"Make in India campaign is a very good initiative. That helped us to do CKD. Unfortunately, government recently introduced five per cent additional taxes on CKD and parts," Triumph Motorcycles India Managing Director Vimal Sumbly told reporters here.

Sumbly and senior company officials were here to unveil new generation classic cruiser 1200cc Bonneville Speedmaster priced at Rs 11.11 lakh (ex-showroom Chennai).

 

Seeking positive approach towards companies who take up assembling in the country, he said "...When you assemble, you put plant, you recurit manpower. And then when you look at volume, you look at manufacturing.

"I think, government should give incentives to people who are doing CKD in India", he said.

On sourcing of auto-components for its products in the country, he said "for that first we need to have that (industry) size. The luxury motorcycle industry is still small."

"The luxury motorcycle (in India size) is now 10,000 units (a year). We are hoping by 2022 it will double the size to 20,000", he said.

Replying to a question, he said his company had signed an agreement with Bajaj Auto to make an affordable premium motorcycle through the partnership, but "nothing has been finalised.."

On the sales contributed from Southern region, he said, "Sales from Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Kuala Lumpur constitute almost 30 per cent for the company"

To a query about the company's plans to enter Tier II-III cities, he said, Triumph Motorcycle plans to have 25 outlets by 2020 and 50 per cent of them will be from such locations.

"Today, we have 15 outlets. 16th, we will be opening in Mangaluru this week. We will have another nine (by 2020). 50 per cent of them will be in Tier-II locations", he said.

Triumph Motorcycles retails, Street Triple, Tiger 800, Street Twin, Thunderbird, RocketIII in India priced from Rs 7.05 lakh to Rs 23 lakh (ex-showroom Chennai).