TII’s online-only cycle brand launched

TII, a part of Murugappa Group launched the country’s first exclusively-online bicycle brand, as part of the new initiative of the company’s Corporate Strategy Group (CSG). Branded as Brooks, the bicycles on offer include city, off-road and children’s bicycles. They will retail on the e-store, BrooksBicycle.com. 

Nine models have been launched in the price range of Rs 5,299–Rs 10,625 for both men and women across age-groups. The brand will also be made available through e-com portals such as Flipkart. The e-commerce initiative is aimed at accelerating bicycle sales in the country by targeting the millennial population, who show a strong preference to shop online. 

Tube Investments makes around 4.5 million bicycles per year. L Ramkumar, MD, said,  “We see a growing segment of online bicycle buyers. Overseas, it is a big segment but in India it is a new concept that cycles are offered for sale online. What we offer is the option to order a bicycle online and even assemble it in the convenience of one’s home.” 

He said there may not be any major cannibalisation in the sales of the company’s existing BSA models. The company has set a sales target of close to 10,000 bicycles this year and it plans on tripling that number in three years. 

The supply chain of the new range of bikes is concentrated around the SAARC and ASEAN nations.Ramkumar said cycles sold under Brooks are imported as some of the components are not made locally. 

Ramkumar added initially the bicycles will delivered in three cities – Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad and based on the response, deliveries will be expanded to cities like Pune, Mumbai and National Capital Region (NCR).  

KC Ramamoorthy, Vice President of Corporate Strategy Group, said the company has signed up with Jeeves Consumer Services for after sales service. BrooksBicycle.com has been developed as a full-fledged purchase and service e-store. The brand also offers options to gift bicycles, a ‘bike guide’ to help customers choose a model, home delivery, assembly and repair service. 

The Brooks bicycle online business model has been formulated at the CSG, the incubation centre of TII. The CSG was started as an intrapreneurship and corporate strategy initiative in 2015, to focus on innovations and growth projects towards making the company future-ready, with four members, comprising one strategist each of the company’s four divisions.