Honda sets new record,sells 10.052 m units in festival season

Market leader Hero Motorcorp had claimed yesterday that it sold over 1 million units during the festive period began in mid-August but did not disclose the exact numbers.

"For the first time, our retail sales crossed the 1 million mark in the festive sales till September 30. Our total retail sales stood at 1,052,000 units between the Ganesh Chathurthi in mid-August and September 30. And we've the Dhanteras and the Diwali left," YS Guleria, senior VP for sales & marketing at Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India told PTI from New Delhi today.

"This is beyond our expectation and target," he added without quantifying the target.

But when asked whether the company will revise upwards its annual sales target of over 20 per cent, Guleria said "it's too early as everything depends on post-October sales.

But I am sure we will maintain this growth momentum."

"Three weeks left for the festive season to get over, we have already crossed 1 million units in retail sales in the ongoing festival season, with a double digit growth over the previous year," a Hero official had told PTI yesterday, refusing to quantify the exact number.

It can be noted that for Hero the 1-million sales has come on the heels of it surpassing 75 million units in cumulative sales since its inception.

Guelria said volume was boosted by a 52 per cent jump in bikes sales which rose to 1,23,600 units from 80,500 units to while its bread and butter scooter sales rose 49 per cent to 2,65,900 from 1,78,600 units during the festive season.

While Honda clocked 52,000 volume on the first day of the Navratra, on the final day it sold over 1 lakh units, boosting the overall Navratra sales over 50 per cent to 3.9 lakh units from 2.6 lakh units last year, Guleria said, adding year-to-date, volume rose 18 per cent for Honda against the industry growth of 10 per cent.

For September, its sales crossed 6 lakh units for the second month in a row selling 6,01,998 units in the month while exports jumped to 32,110 units, Guleria said.

Elaborating on the record sales, he said, "as a trend, we are seeing huge spike in our customer walk-ins and overall retails in every festival, be it Ganesh Chaturthi, Onam or the most recent 50 per cent jump in Navratri. On Dussehra alone, our retails crossed 1 lakh mark for the first time ever."

In September, domestic sales stood at 5,69,888 units against 5,39,404 units last year, while exports continued to glide over 30,000 mark to 32,110 units compared to 29,339 units last year.

This has helped the Japanese major to cross 3 million volume in just six months. Honda sales grew 18 per cent to 3,146,415 units in H1 this year from 2,673,187 units.

"This shows that we alone added a whopping 49 per cent of the incremental volume of the industry, making it the No.1 volume gainer and No.1 market share gainer. On exports too, our exports continue to grow much faster at 34 per cent from 1,36,508 units to 1,82,548 units," Guleria said.