Despite rising inflation, higher interest rates and a slowdown in the economy bikes market leader Hero Honda Motors is targeting record sales for the festival month of October.The company plans to launch no less than seven bikes very soon and its dealers outlets have been stocked up to meet a demand of around 6 lakh bikes and scooters this month.
Pawan Munjal managing director, Hero Honda Motors, said the company aimed to sell a record 6 lakh bikes this year, the highest ever sold by the company, which also happens to be the company's silver jubilee year.
This figure is more than its sales in October 2006, when it sold around 5-lakh units. Incidentally, 2006 was the year when the Indian auto industry was booming.
Munjal said the company had increased production and would stock its 3,000 dealerships and sales touch points with maximum inventory and planned to sell each and every bike dispatched by the company.
Instead of an official launch, the new bikes were recently showcased to the company's dealers. The company has also begun shipping the bikes from this month on.
Company officials say Hero Honda is also anticipating targeting record sales this month as customers are going back to economical bikes rather than performance bikes from rival companies. Also with oil prices going though the roof bikes are seen to be a better alternative to cars.
Hero Honda dealers say they will have to offer high discounts to customers to meet the sales targets set by the company. They say most of the new bikes are in the popular 100 cc and 125 cc segment with bikes like Pleasure and Passion. The company also plans to make available a new variant of the largest selling 150 cc CBZ during the festive season.
Yamaha Motors India's sales target incidentally is a modest 5 lakh units for the whole of 2009.
Hero Honda's sales grew by 20 per cent to 14.46 lakh units till August 08 this year against an industry average of 10.75 per cent in the same period.
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