Royal Enfield eyes further expansion in South East Asia, Latin America

Milan: Royal Enfield is looking to expand further in South East Asia and Latin America over the next five years as part of strengthening its overseas operations.

The company, which is present in few countries across both the geographies, is now in the process of building teams in these areas to enter new territories. “Right now, I believe that in addition to developed markets where we have distribution like the UK, Europe, the US, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, it is largely ASEAN and Latin America which are the two big areas for us,” Royal Enfield chief executive officer (CEO) Siddhartha Lal told PTI on the sidelines of Eicma 2017.

Starting from Thailand and Indonesia, the company has now moved to countries like the Philippines and Vietnam, he added. “We are in these countries with small presence right now. But we are building a team there and same is with Latin America,” Lal said.

The company has just begun its journey in these growing markets, he added. “Hopefully if markets pick up we will spread in rest of ASEAN and Latin America in next 3-5 years. These are the markets with big potential,” Lal said.

Elaborating on company’s presence in Latin America, Lal said Royal Enfield has already established presence in markets such as Colombia and Brazil. “Now in Mexico also we will have store. So 3-4 markets in South East Asian countries and 3-4 markets in Latin America, that is the situation,” Lal said.

As part of Royal Enfield’s ‘city strategy’, it now has around 20 exclusive brand stores outside India, in places like Milwaukee, London, Paris, Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, Bogota, Medellin, Dubai, Jakarta, Bangkok and Melbourne. The company, a part of Eicher Motors, is focusing on international markets as part of its strategy to expand the mid-sized motorcycle segment (250-750cc) across the globe. PTI