Yamaha sees India as Top-5 Markets by 2015

India Yamaha Motors, the Indian arm of Japanese two-wheeler manufacturer, is doing well in India, but its market share is limited till now. Recently, the manufacturer announced that it expects the Indian market to become one of its top five markets by 2016, for this the manufacturer will launch new mass segment vehicles in India. Yamaha is already producing parts in India for its global operations, and wishes to invest more in India and see the country as a component sourcing hub.

"Indian market is very big and it's most important for us. Two wheeler sales volume here is gradually increasing. It will become our top five markets by 2016," Yamaha Motor Co (YMC) President and CEO Hiroyuki Yanagi told PTI in an interview here. India Yamaha Motor (IYM) had managed to sell a total of 4.9 lakh units in 2012, which makes India among the top 10 operations of Yamaha globally.

Yamaha Motor Corp had clocked net sales of 1.3 trillion yen last year and is targeting to increase it to 1.4 trillion yen this year, as Yanagi told PTI. However, he refused to share India's contribution in this. "In 2016, our aim is to have a net sales of 2 trillion yen globally. We expect India to contribute significantly by then," he said.

Sharing India Yamaha Motor's mid-term plans, Yanagi told that the company is eying a share of 10 per cent in India by 2016. The Indian market will reach to 18 millions mark by 2016. When asked about the company's strategy to tap market share ahead, Yanagi said that Yamaha is about to launch more two-wheelers in the volume driven commuter segment. "We will launch many products in this category. Our plan is to introduce 2-3 products every year," Yanagi said. Yamaha recently announced that it is working on a 100cc or above category motorcycle priced at around USD 500. And company also opened its fifth global research and development centre in India.

Talking about its sourcing plans, Yanagi said: "From last year, we have started procuring components from India for our other operations. It's negligible now, but we aim to source a significant amount of parts from here in future." YMC has four global parts procurement centres -- India, Japan, China and the ASEAN region. Last year, Yamaha had announced investment of Rs 1,500 crore to set up its third facility in India. The production at the new plant near Chennai will start by 2014 with an initial annual capacity of 4 lakh units, which will be expanded to 18 lakh units by 2018. At present Yamaha has two manufacturing units at Surajpur in Uttar Pradesh and Faridabad in Haryana. The Surajpur plant produces motorcycles for both domestic and export markets, while the Faridabad unit makes two-wheeler parts.