Siddhartha Lal was awarded the ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ at EY’s 20th edition this year. He was recognized for orchestrating the financial turnaround of Eicher Motors, and the resurrection of the Royal Enfield brand. Siddhartha Lal joined Eicher Motors in 2006 as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the brand. With this victory under his belt, Mr. Lal is now set to compete for the EY World Entrepreneur of the Year Award, while representing India. So, let us take a look at all he has done for this much-deserved acclaim!
Resurrecting Royal Enfield and bringing about a massive turnaround for Eicher Motors!
While speaking of Mr. Lal, Ey said: “Siddhartha Lal has led an impressive transformation at Eicher Motors since he took over the reins in 2006, helping the company resurrect the Royal Enfield motorcycle brand in India and establishing it as a global brand icon,”. Through his contributions, Eicher Motors has now become a market leader within the segment of middleweight premium bikes in India.
Interestingly, Siddhartha Lal had also led Eicher Motors to win ‘Emerging Company of the Year’ in 2015. Back then, he had expressed a strong desire to build a global brand with Eicher and take the Royal Enfield to countries like Latin America.
He also said that though the process will be a difficult one, they are not planning to take an aggressive approach. “We are not in a hurry. We’re not saying we’ll go with our guns blazing and try and conquer the world. It doesn’t happen that way. People don’t just adopt a product when you bring it in. We have to create an association, a story and an affinity towards people around you,” he said.
In 2015, true to his word, he took the Royal Enfield brand to Milwaukee, the USA in the form of an exclusive dealership. They also opened a dealership in Indonesia in August 2015 and gained a foothold into the South American market with dealerships in Brazil and Colombia. Soon, they expanded to have more than 540 dealerships globally, with 36 exclusive brand stores in leading cities like Paris, Melbourne, Sao Paolo, London, and Milwaukee. They have recently gained a contract to expand to Argentina, which has the largest bike market in the continent.
With this fantastic global expansion in mind, it makes sense for the Eicher Motors team to progress from having won the EY Emerging Company of the Year in 2015 to Siddhartha Lal winning EY Entrepreneur of the Year in 2019.
Royal Enfield’s performance in India
Eicher Motors sold a total of 8,20,000 units in India 2017-18, in spite of the fact that the bike market is slowly on the decline. They then broke that record by hitting the 1 million sales annual milestone within the premium bike market in 2018.
In India, the brand has over 790 dealerships. The brand is positioned as a leading middleweight motorcycle brand and is especially popular amongst young travelers.
