Yamaha bullish on India

Not content to sit back and watch a soaring sales graph after the introduction of its ‘supersports’ YZF-R15 and muscular naked FZ-16, Yamaha has recently inaugurated a new state-of-the-art manufacturing plant within its Surajpur facility in Uttar Pradesh and has launched a new touring bike, the Fazer. The Fazer is built around the FZ-16 platform, with styling cues from the FZ-1 superbike. The major changes are a brighter dual headlight-equipped front fairing and a slightly more upright riding posture. Yamaha’s top brass attended the Delhi launch of the Fazer, including Kajikawa Takashi, president and chief executive officer, Yamaha Motor Co; Yukimine Tsuji, CEO and MD, India Yamaha Motor; along with Sanjay Tripathi, division head, product planning and brand management, India Yamaha Motor. According to Takashi, Yamaha is encouraged with the positive market response its bikes have received in India. The focus on top-quality performance bikes has clearly paid off, and Yamaha has planned additional launches in the future. Takashi reiterated the importance of the Indian market to Yamaha and is confident India has the potential to overtake China in future, primarily because the company enjoys relative freedom of operations here. Spread over 36,000 square metres, the new Surajpur plant will have a production capacity of 600,000 bikes annually including the Fazer and other models. The plant capacity can be augmented up to a million units. This fully integrated assembly plant is built on the lines of Yamaha’s globally tried, tested and successfully implemented standards and meets the global quality benchmarks. At the core are the 5-S and TPM activities that fuel its manufacturing processes. The plant has three vehicle assembly lines and four engine assembly lines including one dedicated for export engines.