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When Garware Motors just got the head-start in the super biking world of India with Hyosung, suddenly came news about them selling their stake to DSK. This came at the time when Garware-Hyosung was about to launch the GT250R, a product targeted at a larger audience. As everyone is having this question in mind, we asked Mr. Shirish Kulkarni (Director – DSK Motowheels) to throw some light on this. This is what we found out.
Neither was Garware in the mood to sell their stake in this alliance nor was DSK in the mood to buy when the talk started between Garware and DSK. They approached DSK with simple and clear objective in mind. Garware being new in the area of selling and servicing any product, they were facing some issues in handling the network which demanded expansion more than expectations. So they wanted DSK to open Garware Motors dealerships and provide quality service to their customer with their vast experience in the field of automobile. But DSK, busy with Toyota and Hino (commercial vehicle unit of Toyota), was not interested in taking the dealership.
Then Garware made the offer big by offering all over Maharashtra dealership or even dealership pan India. That made sense to Mr. Kulkarni and discussions started to grow in positive direction. So it was decided at that time, that Garware was going to assemble those bikes and DSK were going to sell those for one year. As time went by, DSK thought if Garware fails to deliver what the market is demanding, in time and as per needs, then they are going to face some negative marks on their name. So finally DSK made a offer that they will also buy a stake in Garware Hyosung alliance and will be a part of manufacturing activity as well. After that things changed to Garware and total stake has been transferred to DSK from Garware. Thus giving birth to DSK Motowheels Pvt. Ltd. This is the third alliance the Korean motorcycle company is having in India, after Kinetic and Garware.
Now that DSK has taken over Hyosung’s India operations, the company is committed to bringing down prices of the bikes. This would involve high investments in manufacturing and assembly operations, which would enable Hyosung bikes and engines to benefit from lower duty. The company plans to start assembling 250cc engines in Pune next year and will gradually work towards 90% localization of all the Hyosung motorcycles. Thus, we can expect Hyosung bikes to be very aggressively priced in the future.