Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

Anand Mahindra, the chairman of the auto group Mahindra & Mahindra, on Wednesday admitted that entering the commuter bike segment more than a decade ago was a failure on the part of the group.

“We knew our dream well and we had the right things, but how to win is where we went wrong. We should have never gone to the commuter bike side,” Mahindra said at an event organised by British carrier Virgin Atlantic on looking at ‘business as an adventure’.

The group entered two-wheelers after buying out Kinetic Motors in July 2008 and relaunched the ‘Freedom’ bikes under the label of ‘Mojo’. But the group has hardly been able to make a mark in the two-wheeler space in the country after over a decade.

Its competitor Hero Motorcorp and Japanese major Honda dominate the market and together control nearly two-thirds of over 21-million units per annum market. Of this, Mahindra sold a paltry 4,004 units in FY19, down 73 per cent from FY18. The only player in an over a dozen OEM market behind Mahindra is Kawasaki Motor which sold 3,115 units in the year, according to data provided by Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM).

Mahindra Two Wheelers Ltd (MTWL), the ailing subsidiary of the group, has been trying to re-invent itself and come back on the growth path— for starters, it aimed to reduce its losses in FY18 to sub Rs 1 billion levels (from a Rs 4.71 billion in FY17),” Business Standard reported.

Mahindra said they entered the two-wheeler market with the confidence to “win”, on the back of having a strong understanding of the ecosystem, distribution, R&D and also brand positioning. “In 2008 the group already had several products in the two wheeler market – automatic scooters, commuter motorcycles and more recently, entered the entry-level premium motorcycle segment with the 300cc Mahindra Mojo,” NDTV reported.

Earlier, the group purchased a 51 per cent stake in Peugeot Motocycles and reports say that now it is about to acquire 100% stake in the same to explore new markets. Sharing the stage with the Virgin group founder Richard Brandson, Mahindra said it brought the premium Java brand to the country a year-ago and seemed to suggest that it has been a success.

It will soon be launching the BSA bikes, which was acquired earlier.

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