Soaring demand forces Royal Enfield to set up its third plant in Tamilnadu

The latest Royal Enfield manufacturing facility will be its third after having two facilities in Tiruvottiyur and Oragadam.

Royal Enfield has seen success in recent times that can make any motorcycle manufacturer around the world jealous of it. After reporting increase in sales like nothing Indian market has seen in recent times over and over again, the Chennai based motorcycle manufacturer has decided to set up its third manufacturing facility in Tamilnadu after having facilities in Tiruvottiyur and Oragadam. To add fuel to the latest rumours, Eicher Motors – the parent company of Royal Enfield – has acquired 50 acres of land at Vallam Vadagal in the southern state of India.

On the latest plans, Mr. Siddhartha Lal, MD and CEO, Eicher Motors said, “Last year we produced just over 1.70 lakh motorcycles and this year (2014) we will be doing three lakh units. So we are talking about 70-75% increase in capacity from last year to this year.”

On the location of the latest unit, he added, “This plot is located within 10 km of our Oragadam facility. This prepares us for future expansion to meet growing demand of our motorcycles worldwide. We will in due course inform our plans and investments on the site.”

“At Royal Enfield we have set our sights on becoming the leaders in the global mid-sized motorcycling segment. Royal Enfield's current capacity from both plants (Tiruvottiyur and Oragadam) will be three lakh units for 2015. In 2015, we intend to manufacture four lakh units from these plants. Eventually, the two plants put together will be able to manufacture six lakh units. Right now, we are focusing on ramping up the capacity of our Oragadam plant which became operational in 2013,” he added.

This news from Chennai has not come as a surprise to most of us in the industry, as we all know very well that Royal Enfield has been enjoying its newly found attention after it launched its ‘Classic’ range of motorcycles with a more reliable Unit Construction Engine (UCE) a few years ago.