Mumbai, March 25: Bajaj Auto and Japan's Kawasaki have decided to end their nearly eight-year-old alliance in sales and services in India from April.
Pune-based Bajaj Auto has been selling and providing after-sales services of Kawasaki bikes at its Probiking outlets since 2009. The company has now decided to focus on its partnership with Austrian firm KTM. It has been converting its Probiking outlets into KTM dealerships.
"We have progressively converted our Probiking network to KTM dealerships. The Bajaj-KTM partnership launched its first co-developed product, the 200 Duke, in 2012. Over the last five years, KTM achieved a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 48 per cent and had an estimated sales volume of 37,000 units in 2016-17. Going forward, Bajaj intends to focus on the KTM brand," Bajaj Auto president (Probiking) Amit Nandi said in a statement.
From April 1, Kawasaki motorcycles will be sold by India Kawasaki Motors Pvt Ltd - a 100 per cent subsidiary of Kawasaki Heavy Industries Japan - through its dealer network. The unit was set up in India in July 2010. It will also provide after-sales service, including for old customers.
"Both Bajaj and Kawasaki will continue to maintain their co-operative relationship across the rest of the world for current and future businesses," Nandi added.
Bajaj Auto, which owns 49 per cent in the Austrian sports bikes brand, has around 325 KTM dealerships in the country. It had entered into a partnership with KTM in January 2012 and since then has sold more than one lakh KTMs.
Probiking is a special marketing division that Bajaj has created for the sports bike segment. It is planning to ramp up the number of KTM dealerships to around 450 by March next year. Earlier this year, Bajaj Auto had rolled out new variants of the KTM RC range, which included the RC 390 and RC 200 with additional features.
During the third quarter ended December 31, 2016, Bajaj Auto saw domestic sales of motorcycles dipping by a little over 3 per cent to 4,59,427 units. During the quarter, it sold around 8,000 KTM units in the country.
