Bajaj Auto Planning a Portfolio Revamp Soon

Bajaj Auto will revamp its seven-model portfolio over the next half year, as managing director Rajiv Bajaj charts an aggressive plan to bump up the company's share in the local motorcycle market beyond the quarter mark.

The company will gun for a 26% share in the fiscal year starting April 2018, Bajaj said at its annual general meeting, where shareholders raised questions about the India market position that fell to 15% based on dispatches from factories in the April-June quarter.

Bajaj said its real retail market share was in the vicinity of 20% and that it would clearly reflect in wholesale numbers as well within a quarter.

A push of inventory in the market by competition had led to the lower wholesale number for the company in the fiscal first quarter, the managing director said.

“By December, we will launch new products under all our seven brands: CT, Platina, Discover, V , Avenger, Pulsar, Dominar. Our effort is to gain 6% market share -we have grown from 14-20%, we will move from 20-26% and we will do this by maintaining EBITDA,“ he said.

Headwinds in exports for much of last fiscal year and a string of disruptions in the domestic market, triggered by demonetisation to BS IV transition and GST implementation, have had an impact on two-wheeler companies, including Bajaj Auto.

But now there are a number of factors going right for the company, Bajaj told shareholders on Thursday. Its current export markets are recovering and the company is entering new large markets which will offer incremental volumes.

At home, opening of three-wheeler permits, hopes of getting the go-ahead to sell quadricycles and a positive sentiment in the motorcycle market all bode well.

On the performance of its motorcycles, Bajaj said all its launches in the past 18 months have done better than the new products from rivals.

The V , Dominar and the new Pulsar NS have brought in incremental volume of 25,000 units a month, compared with 22,500 units in total by the new products from all other players, Bajaj has claimed.

According to Bajaj, it did not have to hard sell vehicles at heavy discounts in March before the country transitioned to new emission standards, as its stock of the previous BS-III products was very low.