DSK Benelli targets 3,000 unit sales this fiscal, opens showroom in Delhi

DSK Motowheels has opened its first showroom in Delhi for the Italian Benelli brand today. This takes up its showroom count to eight with the ninth to come up in Goa within a week. The Delhi showroom will come up in Karol Bagh under the dealership of Torque Bikes.

The entire Benelli superbike range will be on sale at the outlet starting with the TNT 302 priced at Rs 2,83,000, TNT 600i at Rs 515,000, TNT 600GT at Rs 562,000, TNT 899 at Rs 948000 and TNT R (1130) at Rs 11,81,000 (all ex-showroom Delhi).

Shirish Kulkarni, chairman DSK Motowheels, says that the company expects 100 bookings to come in from Delhi this month itself; within the next couple of months the number could climb to 300-400 bookings. “We are targeting sales of 3,000 units from the Benelli brand and around 2,500 units from the Hyosung brand during this fiscal,” he added.

Currently both the Hyosung and Benelli brands are brought into the country as CKDs but going forward DSK Motowheels is looking to localise the Hyosung brand initially. Kulkarni told Autocar Professional that the company is in talks with the South Korean manufacturer for localisation of the superbikes for which vendor development would take about 18 months.

The company is looking to localise the Hyosung bikes to around 75-80 percent by end-2016 at its new Talegaon facility in Maharashtra. Localising the Benelli bikes would take another two years as the brand has just entered the India market and has to rustle up sufficient volumes before localisation can be attempted.

Already two suppliers, namely UNO Minda, is supplying horns and MRF Tyres tyres for the Hyosung bikes with the rest of the parts being imported.

“We plan to export the localised Hyosung bikes back to Korea,” says Kulkarni, signalling that making India an export hub for the Hyosung brand could be on the cards to make this project economically viable.

Meanwhile, the assembly of the Hyosung superbikes will be shifted to the new Talegaon facility that will start assembly operations by the year-end though it will reach its full production capacity of an annual 50,000 units within a year and a half. The first plant is to be dedicated to assembling Benelli superbikes. The plant at Wai in Maharashtra can assemble 2,500 units a year. DSK Motowheels is investing Rs 300 crore in both its facilities for ramping up capacity, of which Rs 220 crore has already been spent.

With the two brands, DSK Motowheels is optimistic of posting revenues of Rs 200 crore from the Benelli brand and Rs 170 crore from the Hyosung brand during 2015-16. The Benelli TNT 302 and TNT 600i are the two highest revenue earners.

As regards the plan for manufacturing lower displacement bikes in India in the range of 125cc and 150cc, Kulkarni says that this is on the radar and these bikes could come from either of the two brands once dealerships reach the count of 150 outlets to achieve economies of scale.