Retail sales to see single-digit growth in September: Bajaj Auto's Rakesh Sharma

Bajaj Auto sales should hold steady in September, executive director Rakesh Sharma told CNBC-TV18. He also said exports should hold at two lakh units and retail sales should see single-digit growth.

The company reported growth of nearly five percent in total sales to 3,73,270 units in August 2021, from 3,56,199 units in the corresponding period a year ago. The sales beat Street expectations.

Analysts in a CNBC-TV18 poll had estimated the company's total sales at 3.66 lakh units for the month.

“The sales should hold steady. In a retail sense, there would be single-digit growth, but we will not be stocking up. Exports will continue to, hopefully, hold at two lakh plus; we are having enough orders, but there is always a logistics issue and there is a semiconductor issue, which affects us, though less than four-wheelers, but it does affect our top-end. So that sort of dampens the sales at an overall level by 5-6 percent,” Sharma said.

Speaking on demand, he said, “India's demographic and innate requirement for independent mobility is strong. Therefore, as the economy recovers and pandemic recedes; the vaccination program brings confidence to the consumer, the retail finance comes back... All these things get mitigated and start to drive demand. So compared to last year, certainly, we would expect growth in the coming few months.”

According to Sharma, electric two-wheeler sales are minimal, and not impacting the current sales.

“The electric vehicles (EVs) and two-wheelers, at this point of time, are still very minimal; so it’s not as if the current sales are getting impacted by the progression of the EVs, at least for the moment,” he said.

He also believes that the transition to EVs will increase steadily though it will not be huge.

For the entire management interview, watch the video