 "Bitten by the Bullet")
Speaking to reporters on Friday, Siddhartha Lal, CEO and managing director, Eicher Motors Limited, which owns Royal Enfield (RE), said, RE is looking at Latin America and South East Asia regions for its growth in international markets.
"We are already in Colombia and now figuring out a way to enter Brazil, the biggest market in Latin America," said Lal while declining to give any time frame.
He claimed RE's Columbia foray a year was successful and it continues to getting good response from its traditional markets of US, UK and the Europe.
Lal said that the other focus export destinations are South East and Asean market. RE recently entered into Thailand and Indonesia. The company also expanded its global footprint in key nodal cities like London, Madrid, Paris, Dubai, Bogota and Medellin.
Lal said, RE may consider setting up an assembly plants or contract manufacturing going forward in one of these two countries to taking advantage on import duties on CBU models.
"Indonesia is among the largest two-wheeler markets in the world. We have opened a store in Jakarta. Thailand is a very developed market for mid-segment and we aim to open our first dealership there soon," Lal said.
Lal said, currently exports contribution is miniscule as compared to domestic sales, however, the company see huge opportunity for mid-range bikes (250-CC to 750-CC) in many of the global markets, which have not been penetrated by other players.
"It is our five to 10-year horizon and we hope exports equally becoming major contributor to our overall sales," said Lal, who added, exports grew by around 33 per cent in 2015 to 8,285 units from 6,221 units, a year ago.
Queried about company's expansion plan, Lal said that the company will be doubling its production capacity to around 900,000 units per annum by 2018 with a third plant in Tamil Nadu.
He said the waiting time for the bikes have come down to three months now and steps are being taken to ramp up the production capacity.
