Honda 2Wheeler hedges demonetization impact in Nov’16

Export sales jump 81%; total sales remain steady at 3.26 lac units

Gurugram, December 1, 2016: The two-wheeler industry faced a challenging November with demonetization impacting demand in the lean month after the festive high ending October’16. However, bucking the overall -5% de-growth in the industry. Honda 2Wheelers successfully closed the month with steady sales of 325,448 units.

Elaborating more on the macro picture in the month of November 2016, Mr. Y.S. Guleria, Senior Vice President – Sales and Marketing, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India Pvt. Ltd., said

“Compared to festival buying in November last year, this year the industry was prepared for an organic correction in November. However, demonetization announcement took everyone with surprise. Two-wheeler sales dropped by 50% in the first 3-4 days of announcement. But recovery started week 2 and by the end of month, Honda’s all India sales returned to almost 80% of normal level with South, West and East leading the recovery.

Strategically, Honda hedged its business by increased exports focus. Paralelly, networks right up to rural areas extensively started building PoS (Point of Sale) infrastructure & promoted online payment gateways leading to slight recovery towards end of November’16. Looking ahead, we remain cautious on recovery forecast next month as December is traditionally a lean sales month.”