Swaraj Baggonkar Moneycontrol News
Bajaj Auto's price cut move during the start of the year has given its market share a solid boost. The Pune-based company clocked the best quarterly market share in more than three years during the December quarter.
The maker of Pulsar and Avenger bikes closed the quarter with a share of 20.3 percent in the domestic motorcycle segment. This was helped by a robust growth in Platina, CT 100 and base variant of Pulsar. The company announced its third quarter results on January 30, clocking a jump of 20 percent in net profit to Rs 1,220.77 crore.
The company managed to clock a 38 percent growth in domestic volumes during the quarter at 6.44 lakh as against 4.66 lakh units sold in the same quarter last year. At 88,000 units, Bajaj sold the maximum number of Pulsars in any month in October, the company said.
Bajaj surprised the market with an Rs 2,000 cut in prices of CT100, the most affordable motorcycle in the industry. A price cut was brought into effect even on the Pulsar. This resulted in a significant rise in retail demand for Bajaj bikes.
During the reporting quarter the company said it sold over 1.81 lakh units of the CT100, a growth of 77 percent while Platina sold 1.95 lakh units, recording a growth of 38 percent. While the entry segment recorded a growth of 61 percent for Bajaj Auto the industry grew by 38 percent only during the quarter.
"In the sports segment, the company continues tio maintain its dominance with market share of 45.7 percent in Q3 FY19 as against 40.5 percent in the Q3 of FY20. Pulsar along with Avenger sold over 2.27 lakh units, a growth of 43 percent," the company said in a statement.
To keep the momentum, Bajaj will launch models in the 125cc as well as 150cc and above segment. To grow the premium segment pie there would be a ramp up in volumes to 90,000 units a month from the current 75,000-80,000 units a month.
Bajaj will be focusing on M3 segment over the next 12-18 months as well. The M3 segment, comprising 125cc models, is dominated by the Honda Shine followed by the Hero Super Splendor. Bajaj had tried to push volumes in this segment with the Discover 125 and V12 but could not sustain the initial momentum.
From a record low of 11.2 percent in June last year, the company increased its share in the domestic motorcycle market to slightly over 20 percent as at the end of September.
While the CT 100 is loss-making, even after the company increased its price by Rs 1,800 during the second quarter, the Platina is a profit-making model for the company. The model will get an upgrade to help it push for better volumes.
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