Indiatimes Auto: “NEW DELHI: Identities change fast in a consumer’s market. That’s what seems to have happened to Hero Honda and Bajaj Auto. The motorcycle czar now sells more scooters than the scooter king.
In April, Hero Honda sold over 6,000 scooters against 2,000 sold by Bajaj Auto, a company synonymous with scooters in India. And don’t be surprised if the trend holds true for the rest of the year as well.
Bajaj Auto attributes it to their decision to clean-up their scooter portfolio before they launch new scooters models later this financial year. “We have stopped producing all existing scooters models and are cleaning up our stocks.
The only model being produced by us right now is Wave, but this also, we are not pushing very aggressively,” says S Sridhar, vice president (sales & marketing), two wheelers, Bajaj Auto.
He says, Bajaj’s current scooter portfolio is outdated and it doesn’t make sense to invest in their marketing and distribution. “Both Chetak and Wave were ‘me too’ product. We now want to bring scooters sporting new technologies to differentiate ourselves from others,” Mr Sridhar told ET. “
Bajaj would have benefitted from listening to a little Kenny Rogers… You gotta know when to fold ‘em. For Bajaj to STOP and rethink their production strategy while they were on top of the game allowed Honda to sneak up on ‘em and steal their cheese. You better watch out Bajaj!
9. May 2006 at 5:53 pm
Hmmm, you might be confusing Hero Honda (the subject of this story) and Honda (HMSI), two different companies. Anyway, BajajAuto has not been India’s leading scooter company since the Honda Activa blew the Chetak out of the water some four years ago. The moves BajaAuto are making now are long overdue.