The economy is showing negative growth and with increasing input costs, many Indian Two Wheeler manufacturers are having a tough time to sell their products due to negative consumer sentiment and Gurgaon based manufacturer, Hero MotoCorp is one of them. The company saw year-on-year fall of 3 per cent in domestic sales. However, it claims that its retail sales in the last two months have increased by seven per cent.
While Hero MotoCorp’s best-selling motorcycles – Splendor and Passion have seen decreasing demand its two scooters, Maestro and the Pleasure are adding up some nice numbers in their total sales figures. Hero MotoCorp is selling around 28,000 units per month of Maestro that is mainly targeted towards male riders. The Pleasure which is mainly marketed for women is doing around 30,000 units per month.
Both the scooters have helped the Gurgaon based manufacturer grow in double digits while rest of the motorcycle sales continues to go down. Hero is in the process of increasing its scooter capacity from current 60,000 units to 70,000 units a month.
With just two scooters in its portfolio, the company is cracking up some really nice sales numbers. Its Japanese rival Honda has four models that dominate 50 per cent of the total scooter market share. But this story might change in the near future as Hero has lined up 12 new products for this fiscal year out of which few will be scooters. The Leap- a hybrid scooter is also likely to be launched in few months, but there is no official word from the company in this regard.
The focus on scooter segment has risen drastically due to higher fuel efficiency, rise in disposable income and increase in the number of women riders. The segment has seen a 15 per cent rise in 2008-2009 to 22.5 per cent ending in June 2013 and will continue to increase in coming months.
Source: Businesstandard
