TVS Motor expects 2% growth in Jupiter sales this year

India's third largest two-wheeler company TVS Motor has set a 12% market share and a 2% growth target by the end of this year. The company is planning to launch one new product in scooter category, besides the special edition of Jupiter brand it has launched.

Aniruddha Haldar, Vice President Marketing, TVS Motor Company said TVS Jupiter has become fastest scooter to achieve one million mark. TVS Jupiter is the second largest scooter brand in the country after Honda Activa. According to the company, the 110cc scooter is the fastest product in the scooter category to reach this landmark in just 30 months since its launch in 2014.

The company claimed that at least one Jupiter is sold every minute. To mark this the TVS is rolling out TVS Jupiter MillionR special edition with 10 new features including disc brake. Earlier TVS has introduced ZX, the top-end variant of Jupiter. Jupiter sales has increased close to 50,000 a month from 10,000 a month during his initial days.

"We have a great expectation on this product," said Haldar. The other two scooter brands for the company are Scooty and Wego. Haldar refused to share any guidance as far as sales is concerned, stating that it is too early and one need to look how monsoon would be and how rural demand going to be during the second half.

The company claims that Jupiter has got a market share of around 10% in the segment and plans to increase that to 12% by end of the year.

The sales will be driven through new marketing and sales initiatives, backed by new special edition and one more new product. Recently, the company announced that it has made an arrangement with e-commerce major Snapdeal to sell its two-wheelers online. Last year Amitabh Bachchan was roped in as Brand Ambassador For TVS Jupiter.

It may be noted, TVS got around 20 market share in the scooter segment and half of it comes from Jupiter. TVS overall market share in the two-wheeler market is around 14% and the company set a target to take it to 18% market share.

On Hero MotoCorp taking TVS second position by becoming second largest selling scooter maker, he said that it keeps changing whenever a company comes out with a new product. It is positive for the customers as the market and product offerings are expanding.

Haldar said that the company is hopeful that the second half of the year does seem to have a lot of possible positives in it, including the seventh pay commission, the monsoon which would have impact if it can boost the sentiment. However, he said that still the sentiment keeps to kick in and those details will be clear in next couple of months.

The company is expecting to increase its market share from current seven% to 10%, in the motorcycles, by end of this year. In the premium segment the company plans to increase market share to 22% from the current 17%.

TVS registered a 17.9% growth, increasing from 175,533 units in May 2015 to 206,886 units in May 2016. If scooter sales are alone considered, then the company grew by 20.2%, posting a sales growth from 54,426 units in May 2015 to 96,485 units in May 2016.