Kinetic hopeful of turnaround

Kinetic aims to sell a lakh scooters and motorcycles this fiscal ending September 30, said Sulajja Firodia Motwani, managing director, at the launch of the 165cc Blaze scooter in Delhi recently. This target will be revised upwards to 2.1 lakh units next fiscal. “We should be selling 65,000 units of Blaze in the local market next year and 15,000 units of exports,'' she said.

The Blaze is priced at Rs 49,999, and is the first of seven scooter models whose manufacturing and distribution rights Kinetic bought from Italy's Italjet Spa in January 2004. Motwani said that the Blaze had the potential to do sales of 35,000 to 40,000 units over the next 12 months, netting the company Rs 180 crore. Exporting 10,000 units would bring in another Rs 50 crore. Kinetic, she added, would also launch two scooters this year. The first will be a 135cc scooter that will debut in August while a second will enter the market by December.

The alliance with Taiwan's San Yang Industry will see a scooter launched by March 2007. Kinetic will launch another two motorcycles by then as well. It is in this product category that the company has not been able to do too well. Clearly, the focus will be on scooters and the biggest challenge for Kinetic is to get its retail network in better shape and ensure that there are no glitches in this department.

The group has reported losses for the past two years. The launch of new models and exports along with the restructuring steps and increased focus on components are steps intended to steer the company back into the black. Motwani also said that Kinetic would increase its exports by a third next fiscal.