October has been a good month for Bajaj Auto that saw it clock its highest-ever retail sales.
"We have highest ever retail sales of all businesses in history of Bajaj Auto during October 2019. We have seen 28 percent growth over festive season YoY," Rakesh Sharma, Executive Director, Bajaj Auto, told CNBC-TV18.
The company saw its best commercial vehicle (CV) retail sales during the month and inventory was in a manageable zone and the opening stock was the lowest in last 20 months. "Last resort of discounting bet was a very poor way to fight this time," he said.
The two-and-three-wheeler maker sold 4.63 lakh units in October 2019, 9 percent lower YoY due to weak domestic business, but was ahead of Nomura expectations of 4.36 lakh units. Month-on-month, total sales increased 15.2 percent due to demand during the festival season and higher discounts.
Domestic sales declined 13 percent year-on-year to 2.78 lakh units, while exports fell 1 percent to 1.84 lakh units, the company said in a BSE filing.
Motorcycle sales in October 2019 stood at 3.99 lakh units, 8 percent lower YoY, and 3-wheeler sales dropped 13 percent to 64,295 units compared to October 2018.
"We are happy that half of sales was driven by new motorcycles launched in the last six months, and brought down inventory," Sharma said.
Considering the strong performance, Bajaj Auto should have also moved market share a bit, though it was a bit early to talk about it, he said.
"Given the feedback from all branches and competition, we have outpaced the industry growth by 15 percentage points, though we don't know the exact numbers," Sharma said.
He said after the festival season, sales tend to fall, but the company would see similar kind numbers in November.
"What the festive season has done is that the negative growth of 15 percent and 16 percent seen earlier seems to have absolutely bottomed out, now we have to navigate through turbulent change and need to observe consumer behaviour during BS-VI transition," Sharma said.
Overall business mix was positive in October, though within the motorcycle segment, there was little bit of relative decline in performance of over 150cc bikes due to the impact of ABS cost increase.
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