Festive season saw a tepid start; seeing demand build up for last few days, says Bajaj Auto

Bajaj Auto, which posted its higher ever monthly sales in October with more than 5 lakh units, said the demand for festive season saw a tepid start, however, later picked up.

“In the beginning part of the Navratri and when the season started off, it was a very tepid start. However, I must say that we have seen some signs of a reversal in the last few days. 75 percent of the season is over, 25 percent of the season is still left but there are some key days which are still yet to come and we did see the money flowing in from the dealers, we did see the retail numbers picking up and from a negative, we think that season-to-date, the industry is seeing about 0-5 percent growth," said Rakesh Sharma, chief commercial officer of Bajaj Auto.

Talking about the sales number, Sharma said, “It has been a very good outcome. The most pleasing thing about the numbers as they have come in is that the outcome is exactly as per the strategy which we have unfolded since February-March of this year."

“We will maintain the runrate, it may not be in the region of 30 percent. Post Diwali, you get into that little bit of a low period and similarly in international business also, post Christmas, this period of December to February is a low period. So we will continue our growth rate but the absolute numbers will come down and I would say the growth rates will be a little tempered, not 30 percent but I think that we should still be in 20s,” said Sharma about the business going forward.