‘Hard for robbers to breach fortress Royal Enfield built’

livemint.com:

Eicher Motors Ltd’s motorcycle brand, Royal Enfield, finds itself in the middle of formidable challenges from the alliances formed by Hero MotoCorp and Harley Davidson, and Bajaj Auto and Triumph Motorcycle, in the highly competitive middleweight segment. However, the brand is confident of “enduring" the onslaught when the “fanfare" around the launch of the new products dies down, considering that it has “built a fortress" which will “not be easy for robbers (rivals) to penetrate".

Domestic two-wheeler companies Hero MotoCorp and Bajaj Auto have set their sights directly on Royal Enfield’s turf, with the launch of 350cc-500cc motorcycles under aspirational international brands like Harley Davidson and Triumph, respectively. The made- in-India products have been strategically priced to either directly compete with or undercut Royal Enfield’s iconic motorcycle Classic 350.

Eicher Motors’ chief executive officer and managing director Siddhartha Lal said, with a share of 90% in the 250cc-750cc (middleweight) segment, “there’s only one direction for Royal Enfield to go eventually", and “it is many, many steps ahead of the competition in many, many ways". Lal was responding to a statement by Bajaj Auto managing director, Rajiv Bajaj, that the “money" in motorcycles category is in the premium segment, where Royal Enfield is the dominant force, and that Bajaj Auto “has no choice but to rob the bank".

“We are no strangers to competition, except they haven’t done very well in our segment," Lal said. “This is certainly a new wave, but it is so, because a couple of manufacturers came together (with new launches) at the same time, but both came in as contract manufacturers for other brands as they couldn’t compete in our segment