Just as Hero and Honda parted ways and showed a lot of character in posing a healthy competition for the other, the same goes with TVS and Suzuki. Suzuki split from TVS, but returned to the Indian market as an entirely Suzuki Japan owned entity in the year 2004. The company started to sell its products a couple of years later.
Things have not been too cozy for the company yet. However, they are not afraid to invest and tap the potential of the Indian market. To do so, they have decided to have one more plant in India. This will be company’s second plant in India at Rohtak.
Suzuki currently has a plant in Gurgaon. The new plant will help the company add around 2 million units to their production capacity.
Even though they are venturing out alone, things have not been going their way ever since. They have not been able to make any considerable impact on the market. The stiff competition from other local and international players like Hero, Honda and Bajaj has made life difficult for Suzuki.
However, these setbacks could not deter Suzuki from trying to make their way back to becoming a prominent auto player in India. They have decided to go the aggressive way. They unveiled the premium 125cc scooter – the Swish 125. The scooter was launched a few days ago.
The company has its hoped pinned on their another bike, Hayate. The Hayate was made public during the Auto Expo in Delhi. It is expected that the, mass motorcycle, which is in the 110cc category should make life easier for Suzuki. To market the bike, Suzuki has signed the best man in the film business – Salman Khan.
Salman Khan is a popular face today and Suzuki expects him to make a positive difference to the sales of the bikes.
As of now, Suzuki has a couple prominent motorcycles in the market – the 125cc Slingshot and the 150cc GS150R. In the scooter segment, Swish 125 and Access are the prominent two wheelers. Access has become a much cherished model for the Indian customers.
Of the total sales the company did in the last financial year, more than 80 per cent of the sales were recorded only through scooters. This shows that the scooters of the company are more popular in the market than the bikes. Now, as the company has signed a big star and is working on the bikes as well, they hope to increase the sales of the bike to at least 50 per cent.
To make this a reality, the company is planning to have more bikes like the Hayate. The company is eyeing a target of 10,000 units of the 110cc bike. At the same time, they also plan to have a go at the Slingshot, which happens to be their best-seller as of now.
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