On Wednesday, Hero MotoCorp Ltd, India’s largest two-wheeler manufacturer, said it reported retail sales during the 31-day festive season of more than 1.4 million motorcycles and scooters.
This year’s festive season extended to Bhai Dooj during the first day of Navratri (17 October), which was observed on 16 November.
The company reported that retail revenues for the period were equal to 98 percent of the festive sales of last year and 103 percent in 2018 for the same period.
“This has allowed Hero MotoCorp to reduce to less than four weeks the stock of vehicles at its dealerships, the lowest ever post-festive inventory,” the company said in a statement.
This comes a week after the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (Fada) reported that at 50-55 days in October, inventory across two-wheeler brands was alarmingly high.
Hero said the festive sales were driven by its mass commuter motorcycles, such as the 100cc Splendor and HF Deluxe versions and the 125cc Glamour and Super Splendor variants.
In the meantime, models such as Xtreme 160R and XPulse drove sales in the premium motorcycle segment, while its scooter models, 110cc Pleasure and 125cc Destini, reported high double-digit growth.”
Thanks to the strong festive sales the company claimed that its market share increased by more than 5 percentage points in October. It did not reveal its current market share, however.
According to the Society of Indian Car Manufacturers (Siam), wholesale or factory dispatches of Hero MotoCorp grew by 35 percent to 791,137 units from the year before in October, achieving a market share of 38.5 percent.
“News about the rapid development of covid-19 vaccines is likely to allow the global economy to rebound more rapidly in the coming months,” Hero said.
The company added that the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) double-digit growth forecast for the Indian economy in FY22 is likely to boost consumer confidence and the two-wheeler sector in particular.
Meanwhile, Hero’s market share stood at 32 percent, according to the October retail data released by Fada.
“News of the rapid development of covid-19 vaccines is likely to allow the global economy to rebound more rapidly in the coming months,” the company said, adding that the double-digit growth forecast for the Indian economy by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in FY22 is likely to improve consumer sentiment and the two-wheeler industry in particular.
