Meditation IN Motion

Thursday, August 26, 2010

TVS motors to invest 200 cr on capacity expansion

NEW DELHI: Motorcycle maker TVS Motor Company on Thursday said it will invest Rs 200 crore by April next year to increase its production capacity to 28 lakh units.
The company also said it will set up a design centre in Indonesia where it has a manufacturing facility.
"There is an increasing demand and to meet that we are increasing our production capacity to 28 lakh units from the existing 21 lakh units per annum. It will entail an investment Rs 200 crore by April 2011," TVS Motor Company Chairman Venu Srinivasan told reporters on the sidelines of the SIAM summit here.
He said the company expects to sell 18 lakh of two wheelers in the domestic market and export 2.5 lakh units this year.
On the three-wheeler front, the company expects sales of 50,000 units.
Commenting on the overseas operation, Srinivasan said TVS expects its Indonesian arm to break even by next year. "By next year we should have a design center there," he said.
He also said TVS plans to make Brazil, where it has an assembly unit, to be the hub for the Latin American market.
"We have a capacity of assembling 50,000 units in Brazil per year. We want this to be the hub of Latin America and supply to countries like Columbia, which is an interesting market," Srinivasan said.
The company assembles its motor cycle 'Apache' in Brazil right now. He also said the company is looking to increase export to Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and ASEAN countries.
TVS Motor reported a rise of 14.80 per cent in its total two-wheeler sales at 15,21,912 units in the last fiscal year.

Source-Economic Times

Friday, August 13, 2010

TVS MOTORS TO RE-START TWIN SPARK-PLUG FLAME

Mr Venu Srinivasan,Chairman, TVS Motor Company, during the launch of the Flame (file photo).

M Ramesh

Chennai, Aug.12

TVS Motor Company will bring back the Flame, the 125 cc motorcycle that was at the centre of a patent litigation between the company and Bajaj Auto two years ago.

TVS Motor's Chairman and Managing Director, Mr Venu Srinivasan, told Business Line on Tuesday that the company has been selling “small volumes” of the Flame.

TVS Motor is now in the process of switching back to the ‘twin spark-plug' version of the motorcycle. Production is set to start soon.

In 2008, rival two-wheeler manufacturer Bajaj Auto Ltd sued TVS Motor claiming “patent infringement”, holding that the Flame motorcycle had a twin spark plug — a feature that Bajaj said it owned the patent for.

Legal battle

In the the first round of the legal battle, the Madras High Court restrained TVS Motor from selling motorcycles with twin spark-plugs.

TVS won in its appeal in the Supreme Court, but in the meantime, the company had begun selling the Flame motorcycle with single spark-plug.

Following the favourable Supreme Court judgment of September last year, TVS Motor announced the re-launch of twin spark-plug Flame.

Making a point

Perhaps because the market in 2009 was rather lacklustre, it looked like TVS Motor's interest was more to make a point in the market that it had won the patent litigation, and therefore was above reproach.

The company now plans to bring back the Flame with a bang.

“We are clearing the stocks of the single spark-plug version. Production of twin spark-plug Flame will begin this month,” he said.

The Flame will occupy a key slot in TVS Motor's product portfolio.

The company has a range of products in the 100 cc segment (Star, Max 100). Last year, it launched the 110 cc Jive.

As of now, the Jive is selling around 8,000 units a month and Mr Srinivasan is confident of ramping it up to 12,000 by September and to 15,000 during the ‘season' (October-November).

Mopeds are selling well, too, which is a bit of a surprise because it was generally believed that the tiny two-wheeler was a ‘sunset' product.

This year, TVS Motor's moped sales will be up at least 20 per cent.

The company has budgeted to sell 650,000 mopeds this year.

Outside South

“The entire growth of 20 per cent is coming from outside South,” Mr Srinivasan said. This is against the widespread belief that mopeds are a ‘southern phenomenon'.

All of a sudden, the mopeds market seems to have picked up in the North and West.

Mr Srinivasan pointed out that the need for the vehicle was common across the country. “It is a doodh-walla, subzi-walla vehicle.”

Marketing

He felt that if the vehicle had not sold well outside the South earlier, it was more due to less-than-adequate marketing.

To a question, he said that mopeds may be lower-margin vehicles, but their production does occupy significant capacities because mopeds' production lines are unique.

Source: hindu

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Joshua wins opening round of INRC

Coimbatore, Aug 1 (PTI)

Pramod Joshua of Team TVS Racing began the season with a bang, by winning the opening round of the MAK Indian National Racing Championship for Bikes, making it a hat-trick of wins here, today. Riding on a TVS Apache, the Bangalore rider Joshua beat teammate and reigning champion by one min 2 seconds in 130 to 165 CC class in Group B 4 stroke, at the dust track at Kethanur, about 45 km from here. Pradeep H K, also of TVS Racing, was third. Local star, Venu Ramesh Kumar, riding a Hero Honda won the 210 to 260 cc Class in Group B 4 stroke to complete a hat-trick here. Second spot went to Chetan Ganapathy. In the Group B 2-stroke, Asad Khan and R Nataraj won in the upto 130 cc and 165 CC class respectively. In group D 4 stroke Kamalakannan beat Sandesh in the upto 130 CC class, while Sarath Kumar finished first, pushing R Raja an Royan Peter second and third in the upto 165 CC category.

Source:ibnlive.in

Thursday, July 22, 2010

TVS Motor Company Q1 Revenue Grows 41 %

PBT grows 151.8% ; PAT grows 122.8%; Declares second interim dividend of 50% and recommends bonus shares in the ratio of 1:1

Bangalore, July 21, 2010: Volume growth, led by new launches and complemented by strong contributions from the existing portfolio, has enabled TVS Motor Company to record a revenue growth of 40.9 % in the first quarter. The company's revenues grew to Rs. 1392.96 crore in the current quarter ended June 2010 from Rs. 988.70 crore in the quarter ended June 2009. Profit before tax during the quarter under review grew 151.8% at Rs. 50.47 crore compared to Rs. 20.04 crore recorded in the comparable period of the previous year. Profit after tax in the current quarter grew 122.8% at Rs. 40.38 crore from Rs. 18.12 crore in the previous comparable quarter.
The board in the meeting held today declared a second interim dividend of Re. 0.50 (50%) per share absorbing a sum of Rs. 13.41 crore including dividend distribution tax for the year 2009-10. The total dividend including the second interim dividend for the year ended 31 March 2010 will aggregate Rs. 1.20 per share (120%).
The board has also recommended the issue of bonus equity shares to the shareholders in the ratio of 1:1 by capitalizing an equivalent amount standing to the credit of the general reserves of the company for approval of the shareholders through postal ballot.
Total two-wheeler sales of the company grew at 31.4 % in the first quarter of the current fiscal at 4.6 lakh units compared with 3.5 lakh units in the corresponding period of the previous year. Motorcycles sales grew at 31.5% to 2.04 lakh units in the reporting quarter from 1.55 lakh units in the quarter ended June 2009. Scooters grew substantially by 41.6 % registering sales of 0.96 lakh units in the current quarter against 0.68 lakh units during the corresponding quarter of the previous year. TVS Wego and TVS Jive are now available across India and have received favourable response from the market; however the full volume impact of these launches will be seen in Q2.
Two wheeler exports registered 78.1% growth with sales increasing to 0.57 lakh units in the current quarter from 0.32 lakh units in the quarter ended June 2009.
Three wheeler sales during the quarter grew by more than 250% to 7979 units in the quarter ended June 2010 from 2223 units in the quarter ended June 2009.

SOURCE: TVSMOTOR

Friday, July 9, 2010

TVS launches Max4R

After their auto-clutch wonder Jive, TVS targets the rural market and launches their new 110cc commuter

TVS launched another 110 cc bike in Indore on Thursday. Max4R, as the bike is called, targets on people from rural areas with heavy load to carry. With a detatchable rear seat, the bike enables fixtures and accessories for carrying things like vegetables’ sacks, boxes and milk cans. Rear seat can also be locked for pillion ride. The single cylinder 4 stroke air cooled engine pumps 8.4 PS and 8.3 Nm, making it viable to carry heavy load. The bike has telescopic oil damped suspension in front and four shock absorbers in the rear. Other features present are- specially reinforced spokes, 130 mm drum brakes, wheel and indicator guards and long wheelbase and wider tyre. The bike has been priced at Rs 37,590, ex-showroom, Indore.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

TVS Motor Company's two wheeler sales grow 36 % in June 2010

Motorcycles grow 44 %; Scooters grow 42 %; Domestic sales up 33 %; Exports up 66 % Highest Three Wheeler Sales recorded in June 2010

Hosur, July 01, 2010: TVS Motor Company continued its upward trend with growth in sales for the month of June 2010 registering an increase of 36% over the same month of the previous year. Total two wheeler sales of the company grew from 115,448 units in June 2009 to 156,685 units in the current month. Cumulative two wheeler sales from April to June 2010 increased 31% with sales of 456,041 units in the current financial year as against 347,141 units in the comparable period of the previous year. Domestic two wheeler sales witnessed robust growth of 33%, increasing from 105,361 units in June 2009 to 139,905 units in June 2010. The company not only recorded growth across all segments of the two wheeler market but also logged highest ever sales of its three wheelers during the month.
Motorcycle sales of the company registered 44 % growth in June 2010 with sales of 66,452 units compared to 46,048 units in the same month of the previous year. Scooters sales continued to excel growing at 42 % with sales of 36,742 units in the month of June 2010 as against 25,945 units in June 2009.
Three wheeler sales crossed the three thousand mark for the first time with the company registering a voluminous growth of 3,003 units in June 2010 over 810 units in June 2009.
Exports contributed handsomely to sales growth in June 2010 posting an increase of 66% with sales of 16,780 two-wheelers against 10,087 units in June 2009.

Source:www.tvsmotor.in

Monday, June 28, 2010

First leg of MRF National Super Cross Championship belongs to C S Santosh of Team TVS Racing

Bangalore May 30, 2010: Bangalore provided just the right weather for the opening round of the MRF Supercross Championship, a round of FMSCI National Supercross championship 2010. While Team TVS Racing kick started its celebration of 25 years in style, taking podium position for every race in which they participated, the star performer of the day was undoubtedly C S Santosh who won both Motos of the Class I Foreign Open - Group A 250 cc - 500 cc. He was adjudged 'Best Rider of the Day".
The first moto was a keenly fought battle between C S Santosh, Pradeep H K and Aravind K P until the seventh lap, when Aravind K P's bike stalled and refused to start, throwing him out of the race. This brought Kerala privateer C D Jinan into the fray. A tough battle ensued for second and third place between TVS Racing's Pradeep H K and C D Jinan, C S Santosh having taken a huge lead over them. Santosh went on to win the race by almost three fourths of a lap, followed by Pradeep H K who succeeded in taking second over C D Jinan.
The day's proceedings however, started with the first moto of Class 3 Indian Experts - Group B which was dominated by Team TVS Racing. Aravind K P, who won the race, was cramped in the first corner, allowing TVS Racing's Pramod Joshua to take the lead followed closely by fellow team mate H K Pradeep. Amid fierce competition for first and second place between Pramod Joshua and Pradeep H K, Aravind K P came in from the rear to win the race. It was an all TVS Racing affair with Team TVS Racing finishing first second and third. Aravind K P. Pradeep H K and Pramod Joshua stood first, second and third respectively. The second moto was no different with stiff competition between the top three TVS Racing Riders.
C S Santosh therefore leads the championship with 40 points, followed by C D Jinan and Pradeep H K respectively with 32 points each.
In the Class 2 novice - Group C, it was a keen fight between Mohammed Azgar from Mysore riding an RX 135, Latif Sharif from Bangalore on his RXG and Murthy R from TVS Racing on his Apache RTR 160. A close contest in the second lap saw TVS Racing rider Murthy R move into second place. Despite desperate attempts to wrest first place from Mohammed Azgar, Murthy was able to manage only second with Latif Sharif coming in a distant third.
The locals impressed in a closely run race with almost seven to eight riders crowding corners in a bid to overtake one another. Bashir Ahmed took top honours winning the race, followed by Anil Kumar and Mohammed Azgar.
The second Moto of Class 1 Foreign open Group A was the most exciting race of the day with Aravind K P and C S Santosh fighting tooth and nail for the first position. Fascinating double and triple jump displayed by both riders were cheered by the enthused crowd. Aravind's bad luck continued in the second race as well, when he fell in the second lap, forcing him to fourth position. C S Santosh went on to complete the race with a massive lead over C D Jinan, who took advantage of Aravind K P's absence and finished second. Pradeep H K of TVS Racing came in third

MRF NATIONAL SUPERCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP - ROUND I
BANGALORE
PROVISIONAL RESULTS

Class 1: Foreign Open Group A 250CC - 500CC - Moto - I (11 Riders, 10 Laps)