Roy Kurian, VP, Sales and Marketing, Yamaha India, accepts the award for the YZF-R3.

YAMAHA YZF-R3

How has 2015 been for Yamaha?

Well we’ve had a growth of 10-12% over last year. If you look at the numbers, we clocked 4.5 lakh units last year, while we’ll be clocking 6 lakhs this year. So it’s been a tremendous year for us – even though the industry growth is only expected to be around 1% by the end of this year.

Are happy with the way the premium segment is growing in India?

For premium bikes above 150cc, the growth rate is very good – almost 30-33% this year. But the pressure is on the sub-150cc bikes, as their growth is neutral or negative. But, of course, it’s good to see the premium segment is growing at 33% when the industry is growing at just 1%. If you look at bikes around the 600cc range, the market size is around 1,000 bikes a month – and we’re looking to sell around 200, which would give us 20% market share. We launched the R3 two moths ago, and we’re getting around 150-200 orders a month – so it’s going well.

KTM manufactures premium bikes in India and BMW are all set to do the same. Do you plan to begin local manufacturing of premium bikes like the R3?

Well, we’re actually looking at the volume game and focusing on mass segment bikes. We’re looking at selling 1 million bikes next year, so we aren’t really looking to be too aggressive with our premium bikes. We aren’t ignoring premium bikes though, as we have launched the R3. But it’s still a niche market, and we’re happy selling 200 or 300 bikes a month. But once the market really picks up, then we’ll look at being more aggressive in this segment as well.

Are you planning a racing series for the R3?

Yamaha is synonymous with racing. It’s in our DNA. And in India we’re the pioneers of racing. However, racing as a sport in India still needs time to develop. It’s still at a nascent stage, and we’re trying to put in our best efforts to make it a big and popular sport.

How important will the Indian market be for you over the next five years?

Well, India is already the largest two-wheeler market in the world. So, needless to say, for Yamaha, India is one of its most important markets. In terms of sales, first is Indonesia and second is Vietnam. India is third, but it has the potential to become number one for Yamaha in the years to come – and so we’re taking it very seriously. The good thing is that the shift is happening from motorcycles to scooters, which shows that customers are evolving.

In terms of scooters, Yamaha has the technical expertise and know-how. Plus, we know how to sell them. Scooters contribute 30% of the market today, and we expect that to increase to 35-40% in the next five years. If that’s the case, and considering the fact that we’ve only recently entered the scooter segment in India (in 2012) – despite which we’ve already got about 7-8% market-share – we fully expect to achieve our target of one million units in sales. Currently, 45% of our sales come from scooters. And in the future we expect that ratio to be about 50-50.

What are your targets next year?

Well, we’re gunning for almost a million in sales in India. As far as our revenue targets are concerned, we’re comfortably on track at the moment!

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