The Hindu : Business : Hero Honda leads two-wheeler sales

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Nov 02, 2004

Business

Business

Hero Honda leads two-wheeler sales

By K. T. Jagannathan

CHENNAI, NOV. 1. Hero Honda-led two-wheeler players have reported stepped up sales numbers for October driving their energies further up on the eve of Diwali.

Leader Hero Honda said it had sold 2.45 lakh motorcycles in October as against 2.07 lakh units in the same month last year. The Pune-based Bajaj Auto had come out with a sales number of 1.57 lakh two-wheelers against 1.35 lakh sold in the same month in 2003.

Nearer home, Venu Srinivasan-driven TVS Motor appeared pleased with its October number showing sales of two-wheelers at 1.18 lakh units. While Hero Honda reported an 18 per cent growth in sales, Bajaj posted 16.8 per cent and TVS Motors 13 per cent.

Sequentially, too, the October numbers were an improvement for the trio. Hero Honda sold 2.18 units in September 2004, TVS Motor 1.05 lakh units and Bajaj 1.41 lakh units.

Hero Honda claimed that its October number was the best ever seen in a single month by any company in the global two-wheeler industry. But for capacity-induced constraint, the company asserted that it would have crossed the 2.50 lakh mark. The record monthly numbers comes even as the Hero in the two-wheeler space has become a company with a one-crore customer base. To mark the event, it is coming out with a "Free2 Room" festive offer that will entail any buyer of Hero Honda bike a Reliance LG mobile handset as gift.

For TVS Motors, October figures came as a big encouragement. The company appears happy about the numbers churned out by the new Victor GX. The company is betting on the recently launched TVS Star to recoup the loss due to fall in demand for 2-stroke vehicles. Bajaj asserted that its current sales would sustain for the rest of the financial year.

Hopefully, the Diwali-eve enthusiasm will spill over the rest of the month for the two-wheeler makers.

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