Every year we will launch 3-4 dealership centers: Ajinkya Firodia

Post launch of its most awaited MV Augusta Brutale 800 model in India the premium super bike seller Motoroyale is looking to expand its dealership centers in India rapidly. 

Presently, the company three exclusive dealership centers in Pune, Ahmedabad and Bangalore and planning to increase the number to 7-8 centers by the end of this year with having presence across major metros and towns like Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai. Every year the company will be launching three to four dealership centers across its 10-12 potential cities which contribute to 80 percent of its sale in India.

Also the company is investing heavily to launch its CKD assembly line in the country. Hence, talking about the future course of the brand in India Ajinkya Firodia, Managing Director, Motoroyale- MV Agusta India spoke to Indianretailer.com on the occasion of launching MV Augusta Brutale 800 in Mumbai.

How you are planning to develop the market in India among distributors?

Motoroyale is a venture under the Kinetic Group which is also responsible for all Indian operations of the MV Augusta brand. We will have our own dealership network under the brand name Motoroyale. Currently we have three dealers in Pune, Banglore and Ahmedabad and we will expand it to 7 to 8 dealership centers functional by the end of this year. First we will focus on top 10-12 cities where 80 percent of our business comes from. We do have finalized partners in Chennai and Delhi markets to come up with the centers in the next two months. Also we are looking to start our dealership centre in Mumbai. Every year we will add three to four dealers it is just that, for the long term, we are looking at correct partner who has money, passion and business sense. We want to be very selective with whom we would partner for the long term. Under Motoroyale dealership centre there would also be the models of MV Augusta and SWM.

How impressive India as a market for MV Augusta is and what would be future strategies?

We think it’s very interesting market for us because superbike is a growing and yet not competitive segment in the sense that all products are different. Motoroyale as a brand is going to be a multi brand so we are targeting to have models in the rage between Rs 3 lakh to Rs 10 lakh and then MV Augusta at upper premium level for which we are tying up with other brands. Couple month’s back we have tied up with Milan based motorcycles manufacturer called SWM which is targeting to launch its bikes in the rage of Rs 6 to Rs 7 lakh. The bike is expected to be in the market in January 2018 in India.

Currently how many models that you have and which is more demanded?

Presently under MV Augusta we have four models which include Brutale 800, F3, F4 and B4, and F3 is the highest selling model. Further MV Augusta is going to launch about four to five models in three years. First three will be introduced this year and next will come in upcoming years. Out of five we are not launching one model because it is not suitable for India. Right now we are just catching up with the product range.

How many bikes you that you have sold last year in India?

Last year we have sold about 100 bikes in India out of that we have sold 40 directly. We have sold in markets like Indore, Calcutta, Chandigarh, Delhi, Ludhiana and people can always buy directly from us. Currently our largest market is Bangalore where we sell around 48 out of 100 bikes. A lot of time we also sell in small cities like Karad in Maharshtra. Passion, bike riding, bike groupism are the driving factors of sale as biking is an adventure sport. We have very minimal market share and want to reach to 20 percent in three to four years.

Currently we have assembly plant in Ahmednagar. We are considering more of assembling and get into CKD assembly facility as well in India to reach the sales potential of 500-600 for the brands like MV Augusta by mid of 2018 and that would be about 8 percent of the global MV Augusta sale. We are investing about Rs 6cr in CKD plant.

Generally how many superbikes are sold in India?

Around 13,000 superbikes are sold in India, 5000 of these are Harleys and remaining are the other brands. The total number has grown from 9000 last year to 13000 and it is expected to touch 22,000 by 2020. The number of superbikes being sold in India is growing because of culture and preference for having bikes that people have never before experienced. People are upgrading from Pulsars to KTM to Enfield to Ducati. Every city in India now has 2-3 biker groups which have 100s of members and they buy the bikes again and again.

What is impact of GST on your product?

It is 28 percent plus three percent extra on top of that every state has RTO tax as high as 10-20 percent. So it’s actually heavy tax. All our competitors have assembly lines in India under Make in India campaign.