Bajaj unveils annual fiscal performance, identifies Sri Lanka as unique market
Bajaj Auto Ltd, one of the oldest two-wheeler manufacturers in India, currently manufacturing motorcycles, three-wheelers, and quadricycles, shared the company’s fiscal statistics and market value in Sri Lanka.
The statistics were portrayed at a recent press conference held at the Bajaj Auto Ltd head office in Pune, India, along with its sole distributor in Sri Lanka, David Peiris Motor Company (Pvt.) Ltd (DPMC).
The company’s business and financial performance for the financial year 2017-18 saw total sales of 4,006,791 units, posing a growth of nine percent. During this successful period, a total of 3,369,334 motorcycle units were sold, growing by five percent, with Commercial vehicle sales amounting to 637,457; a growth of 43 percent.
Net sales saw an increase by 15.6 percent to INR 24,700 crore.
Operating earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 7.7 percent to INR 5,145 crore, the highest ever recorded by the company.
Operating EBITDA margin was 20.2 percent of net sales while operating income and operating profit increased by eight percent to 4,829 crores. The operating profit margin was 19 percent of net sales and operating income.
Following a successful financial year for 2017-18, the company also shared its business performance for the first half of financial year 2018-19. Total sales for this period stood at 2,566,085 units, once again the highest ever.
Motorcycles sales for the first half of 2018-19 stood at 2,156,506, with a growth of 27 percent. Commercial vehicle sales stood at 409,579, posing a growth of 54 percent.
The company’s export business saw total sales of 1,046,225 units, again, the highest ever with an overall share of 42 percent.
Bajaj recognises that the Sri Lankan market as unique to them because it considers the threewheeler as a family vehicle. Bajaj shared statistics on this, depicting that 24 percent of three wheelers in Sri Lanka are used for fulltime hiring, 62 percent are used as family vehicles, 10 percent as a hiring and family vehicle and four percent allocated as ‘other’.
Surpassing 40 successful years with the company’s Sri Lankan Counterpart DPMC, Bajaj retains 92 percent of the total three-wheel market share in Sri Lanka with well over one million units sold in the island. The company also retains 64 percent of the total two wheeler market share with over 1.4 million units sold island wide.
In June this year, the company’s newest product, the Bajaj Qute, which is categorised under the ‘Quadricycle’ segment, received central government approval to sell in India.
According to Bajaj Auto Ltd Export Business Unit Senior Vice President K.S. Grihapathy, Bajaj has received approval by the state transport authority in 18 states.
“Qute is being exported to more than 30 countries and we have exported over 7,000 vehicles so far,” Grihapathy said. “Across the globe Qute is being loved by customers.”
Adding to the Qute’s standpoint in Sri Lanka, Grihapathy said: “In Sri Lanka we have positioned Qute as ‘My Family Vehicle’, and we thank our customers in Sri Lanka for their wholehearted welcome for Qute. We are proud to announce that there are already 650 happy Qute owners in Sri Lanka.”
The Bajaj Qute has been designed in response to requirements of low cost, first and last mile public transport across the world by optimising size, weight, cost and speed.