BackKinetic banks on Flyte to break even by mid-09
Kinetic banks on Flyte to break even by mid-09
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Two-wheeler maker Kinetic Motor Co. Ltd said it expects to break even by the first quarter of fiscal 2009 as it expects to sell more gearless scooters. It has been making losses since 2003-04.
“The Flyte will be the cornerstone of our turnaround," said managing director Sulajja Firodia Motwani, referring to the gearless scooter the company introduced on Monday. “We’ll be able to break even if we sell around 5,000 units a month, and by June we target to go to 8,000," she said.
Kinetic, which sells mainly scooters, has less than 0.5% share in India’s two-wheeler market. It reported a 41% fall in sales in the first half of this fiscal to 22,537 units, even as the overall market fell by 9.4%.
Motwani has allied with Taiwan’s Sanyang Industry Co. Ltd to introduce Flyte. The firms plan on introducing another gearless scooter later this fiscal. Sanyang has an 11% stake in Kinetic Motor.
In a separate development, auto parts maker Kinetic Engineering Ltd, the parent of the two-wheeler maker, will invest Rs60 crore to build an assembly unit in Singur to make gearboxes for the proposed Rs1 lakh car from Tata Motors.
Kinetic Engineering, which used to make motorcycles, now only makes auto parts, and has a 49.31% stake in the two-wheeler unit.
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