India Yamaha sales go past 100,000 mark in September 2016

India Yamaha Motor (IYM) has recorded the highest-ever sales milestone in the history of its operations in the country for the month of September 2016.

The company, which has been consistently growing month-on-month on the back of surging demand for its scooter models, has breached the 100,000 units mark in September including its domestic as well as export sales for the first time.

In its sales data, for September 2016, released today, the company has announced that it has sold a total of 101,153 units. Of this, the domestic sales stood at 89,423 units (including Nepal) and the remaining sales of 11,730 units (excluding Nepal) were the exports for the last month.

The domestic sales for September 2016 is also its highest-ever, breaching its previous best of 74,868 units sold in August 2016. Positive sentiments around the festive season backed by healthy monsoons this year has helped the company record an additional sales of  22,156 units over its September 2015 sales of 67,267 units, thereby registering an impressive YoY growth of 32.94 percent.

Industry sales data confirms that Yamaha had first crossed the 70,000-unit mark in October 2015, which was reported by Autocar Professional.

Notably, the company has crossed the 70,000-unit mark only three times so far, which includes October 2015, August 2016 and September 2016.

Commenting on the company’s record growth, Roy Kurian, vice-president (Sales & Marketing), Yamaha Motor India Sales, said, “September has been a historic month for Yamaha. The total number of sales in the market reached an all-time high, which is a direct reflection of constant faith of customers along with the immeasurable passion shown by the network partners. Yamaha’s all round initiatives  –  sales, service, spare parts, network expansion and customer satisfaction – with exciting product line up and strategic customer engagement programs were also the key growth driver for Yamaha.”

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IYM had recently expanded the production of its popular scooter model Fascino from its Chennai plant to its Surajpur facility, ensuring that the model rolls out at both manufacturing plants on account of its increasing order book. The company is also understood to have been receiving encouraging response for the Ray-ZR model so much so that it had to prioritise the production capacity for its scooters over its motorcycles at its Chennai plant.

The production expansion of the Fascino scooter, therefore, was planned to make way for the production of its 110cc Saluto RX model at its Chennai plant over the last two months.

Speaking to Autocar Professional in August, Kurian had disclosed, “After launching the Ray-ZR in the market, we are receiving a good response from day one and have long pending bookings for this new model. Our scooter backlog was increasing and our retail channels are telling us that customers are lining up at our showrooms. We had to also increase the production of the Ray-ZR to 12,000-14,000 units in August, which really had to do with the production adjustment of the Saluto RX. From September onwards it will be restored as per the market demand.”

Racing for a million units

While September was a milestone month for the company, it is estimated that Yamaha, along with the big-four – Hero MotoCorp, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India, TVS Motor Company and Bajaj Auto – will achieve new heights in its monthly sales performance in October 2016.

Gearing up for the surging demand in the market, the companies are understood to have started building apt inventories for smooth logistics and quick deliveries across their respective dealerships during the festive month(s).

With solid month-on-month sales, India Yamaha is also racing towards its ambitious target of securing annual sales of one million units. The company, which follows calendar year, aims to achieve this feat as early as CY2017.

“Yamaha’s sustained growth across segments has intensified its march towards the one million units mark and by 2017 Yamaha could hit the coveted number. The demand for scooters in rural markets will rapidly draw parallel to the urban figures and Yamaha will continue to drive its scooters in the non-urban markets for the rest of the year. The hike in the dispensable income among urban youngsters on the other hand, will exalt excitement in the higher segments where Yamaha has intensified its presence with the FZ series and the R Series,” revealed Kurian in the official company document released today.

The company says that its new models including the new colour variants of the 125cc Saluto, front disc brake variant of its family scooter Cygnus Alpha and new Ray-ZR are contributing well to its surging monthly sales.