After capturing the fancy of Indian riders with their cult products, Royal Enfield now wants to take on the world with its offerings in the 250cc – 750cc segments, especially targeted towards the UK and the US market. The Chennai based company has had a very successful year with its products and the company managed to sell over 1,78,121 units in 2013, a growth of 55 percent over the previous year.
Eicher owned Royal Enfield will be focusing on the mid-size segment over the next five to seven years. The mid-size segment has enormous opportunity for growth globally and Royal Enfield wants to be an aggressive player in the segment with its offerings. The company is working on multiple platforms that will underpin the new models. Globally the target audience would be bikers who want to move away from high-end bikes to a mid-range bike as an additional option and would target the fifty plus age group riders.
Keeping in mind the global standards, Royal Enfield launched the Continental GT in London last year and received an excellent response for the motorcycle domestically and overseas as well. The company sold 4400 units of its high-end motorcycles globally in 2013 with a recorded growth of 25 percent compared to 2012. The company is now focusing on setting up wide sales and distribution network internationally in its two large markets namely the US and the UK (US being the biggest) and is expanding its production facilities domestically to take on the demand for an Indian made motorcycle.
Royal Enfield is also working on expanding its production facility in Chennai with an investment of Rs. 600 crore and will be able to roll out 5 lakh units from its two plants by 2016. The investment will also be used for increasing research and development infrastructure for its new products and capacity expansion. Eicher is also said to be working on a personal mobility four-wheeler in collaboration with Polaris.
Royal Enfield is definitely feeling the heat from other cruiser brands like Harley-Davidson and Triumph, companies which are actively working on bringing affordable bikes to the masses. The British brand has to move quickly with new products and the latest Continental GT is proof of what they are capable of. The GT uses an all new chassis and we expect the same underpinnings to be used on a variety of new models.
