Hero MotoCorp, the country’s largest two wheeler manufacturer will be launching a range of scooters and motorcycles (Splendor, Passion, etc) in Iran and Turkey. Though the company conducts sales in over 37 global markets, the price sensitive African markets poses a challenge in terms of innovative and feature rich products.
Where the company’s emphasis on South Asian markets are concerned, production operations will be conducted from the Hero MotoCorp plant in Bangladesh. Despite economic upheavals and new policies coming into effect, the company has managed to stay on course and continue with their emphasis on global markets bringing in double digit growth in 2017-18. In the past year, company’s global sales stood at 2,04,484 units as against 1,82,117 units sold in 2016-17.
Concerning launch of new scooters and motorcycles into the Middle East, these will be new products and both entry and premium motorcycles in the 100cc and 125 cc segments. Market share in Nepal and Sri Lanka are also set to increase with premium products in the scooter and motorcycle segment being planned for launch.
Where Hero MotoCorp Indian operations are concerned, the Company’s Annual Report 2017-18 indicates a marginal dip in profits for the quarter ended June 2018 to Rs 909 crores. This was despite Hero MotoCorp being a leader in the entry level bike segments between 70-11cc.
Rising competition from Bajaj Auto and price cuts offered by the company saw its profits increase 74% YoY in this quarter to 14.6% from 12.8% in the past quarter, while market share of Hero MotoCorp moved up by 30 basis points. The company’s volumes in the scooter segment dipped by 10% even as the industry sales increased by 10%. The impact could be due to higher cost of raw materials and higher taxes even as Hero MotoCorp increased prices in the last quarter to offset these costs.
Plans for this fiscal include special emphasis on entry and deluxe segments with new launches in the 200cc bike segment and launch of the 125cc versions of Duet and Maestro Edge. Hero MotoCorp is also working on electric two wheelers which would be ready for launch at an appropriate time.
The company has also made investments into Ather Energy, a Bengaluru based tech start up which has already launched its first smart electric scooter and public commercial charging system.
