Two-wheelers record strong festive sale

KATHMANDU, Nov 13: The two-month festive season - when two-wheeler dealers usually sell 30 percent of their annual sales - is almost over and auto dealers say they are encouraged by the festive sale. So high was the demand that leading two-wheeler dealers in Nepal -- Syakar Company, Hansraj Hulaschand and Company (HH and Company) and Morang Auto Works (MAW) had a tough time supplying bikes as per the demand.[break]



Syakar Company - the authorized distributor of Honda and Hero Honda bikes for Nepal - experienced better than expected sales this season. “The sale of Hero Honda bikes was lot better than we had expected. We faced shortage of two models of Honda - Unicorn and Dio,” said Saurav Jyoti, managing director of Jyoti Group - the parent company of Syakar Company. Jyoti explained that the shortage of the bikes was due to less supply from India itself. “Had the supply been adequate, the sales would have been much better,” he added.



“We had targeted to sell 6,000 Hero Honda bikes per month during the two-month period. But the sales exceeded our targets.”



Officials of Morang Auto Works - the authorized distributor of Yamaha bikes for Nepal - said sales during the period was on par with sale recorded during same period last year because they failed to supply some of the models as per the demand. “We faced shortage of R15 and FZ-series bikes this festive season because they sold much better than our expectations,” Suraj Manandhar, deputy general manager - motorcycle division of MAW, said.



“We faced shortage of bikes because we failed to correctly estimate demand in the market.”



HH and Company - the authorized distributor of Bajaj bikes for Nepal - also experienced emphatic sale this season. “The sale during the season was five percent higher than the sale during the same period last year and 25 percent more than the sales on normal days,” said Aashish Sharma, the showroom manager of HH and Company. Pulsar 150 was the largest selling Bajaj bike this season, according to Sharma.



All the dealers said sales were better during Dashain than the Tihar.



“But the rate of growth was still lower than our expectations because probably many people went outside the Valley to celebrate the festivals,” Sharma added.



The festive schemes that the dealers had announced for the Dashain-Tihar festive season are still up for grabs, according to dealers.

Related story

Datsun launches "Datsun Festive Hot Deal" festive scheme