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Speaking to CNBC-TV18, Bajaj says the Q2 is known as the most difficult quarter because it comes in between the marriage season in the first quarter and the festive season in the third quarter. "Hence, one is always happy to see the back of the second quarter," he says.
On the road ahead, Bajaj expects to hold on to the 3.25- 3.5 lakh sales per month for the next three months and adds that the demand issues in its African segment have now been settled.
However, what may not be received very happily by customers is Bajaj's guidance of an imminent product price hike. The range for the hike is likely to be between Rs 500 and Rs 5000, adds Bajaj.
Below is the edited transcript of Bajaj's interview to CNBC-TV18.
Q: Do you think the worst is over?
A: I would say yes in the sense that it is well known that the second quarter is the most difficult quarter of every fiscal year. This is because it gets caught between the marriage seasons in the first quarter and the festive in the third quarter and also is overwhelmed by the monsoons, particularly in rural markets. So in that sense, yes one is always happy to see the back of the second quarter.
Q: You had mentioned to us earlier that till December perhaps this sector may pull through because of festive season demand, but post that you are expecting the downtrend to resume. In terms of a run rate what do you think you can hold up up until then both in overall sense as well as in the motorcycle segment?
A: About six months back in the domestic market we were selling about 200,000 motorcycles every month which in recent months slipped closer to 160,000-170,000. I am hoping that we can come back into the 200,000 plus zone from December, not so much because the market will necessarily improve, but because of the launch of our new Discover later this month.
As far as export markets are concerned motorcycle sales which had fallen to levels of 90,000-100,000 a month, are now clearly and consistently likely to be over 100,000 a month.
If I am not wrong in September we had motorcycle sales of about 121,000. So, that has come back very strongly and there are lots of reasons why that should continue to sustain. If you put both of them together somewhere between 325,000-350,000 a month is what I think we should be in a position to do.
Q: If you put your ear to the ground are you getting a sense at all that this time's festive sales will be better than last year's even by a small margin? We hear so much praise of this big rural boom because of the monsoons.
A: I can actually say that almost everyone seems to say that it will not be as good as last year. So, definitely everybody is very happy to have finished with Q2 and they expect a good jump starting day after or tomorrow with Navratri.
Surprisingly dealers continued to be very positive and they believe that the monsoon has been good, they believe the crop has been good, the prices are good and therefore they believe from January onwards they will see the cumulative effect of all this come through.
via Business - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNGYOued4zPiOARS0fRGYy64pNjrQQ&url=http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/will-hike-prices-by-rs-500-5000-worst-over_962521.html
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