Yamaha Motor India Ltd, the fully owned arm of Yamaha Motor of Japan, is planning to launch two-three new motorcycles within the next seven-eight months in a bid to arrest the slide in its sales during the past one year.
Capacity utilisation at the company's Surajpur plant in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, has fallen drastically from last year's 750 bikes a day to 400, said workers.
"New bikes are expected to help increase marketshare as well as capacity utilisation," they added.
The company, which recently bought out its Indian partner Escorts stake in the erstwhile joint venture Yamaha Motor Escorts Ltd, announced the launch of a new model 'Crux R' today.
According to sources, it is currently working on the designs for two new bikes in the 100-135cc category and plans to roll them out in the first quarter of 2002.
The year will also see substantial increase in advertising and promotional budget. Yamaha Motor India's new director (marketing) H Sakurai said that the turnaround strategy will hinge not only on new products, but also on promotion of the Yamaha brandname which has seen a perceptible erosion in recall and value during the past years.
The immediate strategy is to address the urban market through 'Crux R'. R R Prasad, deputy general manager, Yamaha Motor India, told Business Standard: "Our production is down as we were not able to meet the emission norms set out by the government at a short notice last year. Our vendors were not geared up then. However, capacity utilisation is expected to become optimal with the launch of Crux R."
Following this, the capacity of the plant will be increased from the existing 3.7 lakh units per annum to 5.5 lakh per annum by 2003. Prasad said this will require an additional investment of around Rs 250 crore.
Crux R, a 106cc four-stroke mobike, priced at Rs 41,000 (ex-showroom Delhi), will be available in the market beginning August 1.
Crux R is a face-lifted version of Crux, which was launched earlier this year. Crux R is priced Rs 2,100 over Crux.
While Crux was launched primarily to address the semi-urban and rural markets, Crux R is being targeted at the urban market.
Sales of Crux during the past months have revealed that only around 20-25 per cent of unit sales came from the urban market. Crux sold 33,000 units in the first four months of its launch.
While Crux R is expected to sell between 65,000-70,000 units during the year, Crux is expected to sell between 1-1.25 lakh, Prasad said.
Executives said the thrust will be on the 100-110cc four-stroke segment since it now commands 73 per cent of the bike market and is expected to grow further to 79 per cent by 2004.
