Honda 2Wheeler hedges demonetization impact in Nov'16

Elaborating more on the macro picture in the month of November 2016, Y.S. Guleria, Senior Vice President – Sales and Marketing, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India Pvt. Ltd., said: “Compared to festival buying in November last year, this year the industry was prepared for an organic correction in November. However, demonetization announcement took everyone with surprise. Two-wheeler sales dropped by 50% in the first 3-4 days of announcement. But recovery started week 2 and by the end of month, Honda’s all India sales returned to almost 80% of normal level with South, West and East leading the recovery."

"Strategically, Honda hedged its business by increased exports focus. Paralelly, networks right up to rural areas extensively started building PoS (Point of Sale) infrastructure & promoted online payment gateways leading to slight recovery towards end of November’16. Looking ahead, we remain cautious on recovery forecast next month as December is traditionally a lean sales month,” Guleria said.

Despite steep fall in sales in the first week after demonetization, Honda 2Wheelers made a fast recovery to sell a total of 325,448 units in November’16 (compared to 326,466 units in Nov’15).

Despite the total industry sales falling by -5%, Honda steered clear of any drop in sales and instead gained 1% market share to 23% in November’16.

Image:Honda Website