Bookings for Royal Enfield’s premium motorcycles close to pre-covid levels

NEW DELHI: In a sign of relief, bookings of Royal Enfield brand of motorcycles nearly touched pre-pandemic levels in May and first week of June, after the Centre and the states decided to ease lockdown.

“Our bookings are looking healthy and overall booking trend is close to normal on a run rate basis. We are quite satisfied at the moment,” said Siddhartha Lal, managing director, Eicher Motors, in a conference call on Friday.

“We remain quite optimistic (about the future). We always had a strong balance sheet and cash position. We are continuing with our investments and are not holding back on any long-term investments,” added Lal.

The maker of middle weight premium motorcycles endured a tough FY20 due the economic slowdown following the bankruptcy of IL&FS. Sales of premium products are expected to remain subdued in the current fiscal as affordability of customers has taken a hit due to the covid-19 induced slowdown.

“We used to sell around 60,000 vehicles per month before covid. We can’t predict how much of these bookings will be converted to actual sales,” said Vinod Dasari, chief executive Royal Enfield, in the post earning conference call.

“Because we had opened up out studio stores in rural areas, we felt the least pressure in May. Our strategy of going behind the cities has actually worked. Because of covid-19, people may move away from public transport and go for aspirational products,” added Dasari.

Eicher Motors – manufacturer of Royal Enfield brand of premium motorcycles – on Friday reported a 44.2% year-on-year decline in its March quarter net profit to ₹304 crore because of a slump in sales in March following the outbreak of covid-19 and the subsequent lockdowns.

Sales had declined in January-February also, falling 17%, because of a slowdown in the economy.