Triumph Motorcycles opens Kochi dealership, plans nine more in 2014

Triumph Motorcycles, the iconic British motorcycle brand, has opened a new dealership in Kochi, its third in India along with one each in Bangalore and Hyderabad.

The design of the new facility (named Syamadynamic Motorcycles) follows Triumph’s global retail layout with consultation lounge, sales and aftersales areas placed near the motorcycles on display. The dealership also has an integrated aftersales service facility featuring service bays and a spare parts inventory.

While the dealership offers a collection of Triumph merchandise, which includes riding gear, accessories and memorabilia, it also offers customisation facilities to customers who wish to custom-build their stock Triumphs.

As per the company’s media statement, the staff at Syamadynamic Motorcycles has been provided with intense training in management of sales, service, spare parts and business systems and customer service to ensure that customers get the best-in-class pre- and post-sales ownership experience. A team of service engineers have also been trained at Triumph's training centres in Hinckley in the UK.

Talking to Autocar Professional earlier this year, Vimal Sumbly, managing director, Triumph Motorcycles India, had revealed that “dealership opening depends on multiple factors, which include full-fledged training to the dealer and technicians (that takes around three months), approvals and implementation of final design layout, the stock of bikes, inventory of spares for aftersales services and merchandise and many others. We plan to open up nine dealerships during this year.”

“Kochi with its vibrant culture and winding roads adjacent to the gorgeous sea makes for a perfect riding destination. With our state-of-the-art dealership, our aim is to give the brand lovers not just a product but an overall experience that they deserve from a globally renowned brand like Triumph,” said Sumbly at the dealership launch in Kochi yesterday.

Triumph’s line-up includes the classic Bonneville and Bonneville T100, the Speed Triple, the Street Triple, the café racer Thruxton, the Tiger 800 XC and Tiger Explorer, the Storm and the Rocket III Roadster and the super-sports bikes, the Daytona 675 and the 675R. The product range for India is a combination of completely built units (CBU) brought in from Triumph's plant in Thailand and bikes that are assembled in from CKD kits at the manufacturer's assembly facility in Manesar, Haryana that will be used for assembly operations till Triumph’s Karnataka plant opens.

Closing onto its sales target of 500 units in the first six months of operations, the company claims to have clocked 326 bookings across all models in its 11-bike portfolio so far and is aiming to set up three new dealerships – one each in Mumbai, Pune and Ahmedabad – by May 2.

Providing his sales estimate to Autocar Professional at the Auto Expo earlier this year, Paul Stroud, director, sales & marketing (global), Triumph Motorcycles, had said that “Triumph is already enjoying a great response from the Indian market. We are looking at a target of 500 motorcycles in the first six months.”

“We are confident that the booking trend will continue to improve as we move closer to the start of sales with six functional dealerships across key cities within the next one month. The experiential consumer rides offered at Triumph dealerships in Hyderabad and Bangalore have yielded excellent results and there has been a substantial jump of nearly 40 percent new enquiries in Bangalore and Hyderabad; we expect  to see the same trend n Kochi as well,” said Sumbly, explaining his immediate priorities.

Triumph Motorcycles, the largest British motorcycle manufacturer, currently builds around 50,000 bikes a year and has over 740 dealers worldwide.

Photographs: Vimal Sumbly, MD, Triumph Motorcycles India, astride a Storm; Kochi’s mayor, Tony Chammani cuts the ceremonial ribbon at the new dealership.