Royal Enfield will enter emerging markets in Latin America and South East Asia, says a report on Economic Times. This move comes close on the heels of the vintage bike maker setting foot in Colombia, and appointing a distributor over there.
Royal Enfield hopes that Colombia will be a happy-hunting ground for them. After appointing a distributor, they are inching closer towards the next step. They say their showrooms in Colombia will have opened shutters by the end of this year.
In a conference call with the tabloid’s reporters, CEO and MD Mr. Siddhartha Lal pointed out that the company has set sights on various emerging markets around the world. They would be targeting the ones in Latin America and South East Asia very soon. Mr. Lal feels that the market size in these countries is small, but it definitely has capacity for growing. He also feels that these markets lack tangible choices in the mid-size category.
It is there where Royal Enfield will come in to plug the gap. The vintage bike maker fields choices such as the Bullet, Classic, Thunderbird and the Continental GT. All the bikes, save for the last, are available in two engine sizes : 350 cc and 500 cc. While the Thunderbird and the Continental GT are relatively fresher, the Bullet and Classic models brandish their Retro Feel as their USP. The Continental GT is their newest model and sports a 535 cc, fuel-injected powerplant.
Royal Enfield already has a strong foothold in various developed markets like the US, UK, Europe, Japan and Australia. They had set a production capacity target of 2.8 lakh units by the end of 2014. Somehow, they are en-route to surpassing that target and reach 3 lakh units by the end of this year. 😀
They plan to touch the production figure of 4 lakh units per annum by 2015. The enhanced production capacity will reduce waiting periods on their bikes, and will allow them to further bolster their exports.