Royal Enfield has just opened a new flagship store, Moto Machine in Sydney. If you are a Royal Enfield fan it’s definitely worth checking out. To celebrate the opening both the Royal Enfield CEO, B.Govindarajan and the Anuj Dua the Head of Business for the APAC region attended the grand opening event and I took the opportunity to ask them both a couple of questions.
ROSS: Hi BGR, great looking space here well done to the whole team. First up I would like to know, what was the first bike you ever rode?
BGR: Well, it's a good story. The first bike, which I had in 1994 when I joined Royal Enfield was a Bullet.
At that point of time, I was about 53kg, a thin tall guy and had just got married. My wife was asking, are you sure you can handle this motorcycle? I said, well, let me try. So reluctantly she got onto the motorcycle. We were just going for the first ride when I passed the road signal. A policeman actually stopped me, and he said, “oh man, young guy, you are actually passing the signal and that's not on. What are you doing?” I said, “I just joined Royal Enfield and I manage the modernisation of the Royal Enfield manufacturing systems and here is a motorcycle, which they gave me”.
His reply was “oh, you work for Royal Enfield. Cool. Go, go, go. No problem.” That's the first motorcycle which I'll remember in my life.
ROSS: I’m not sure that’s the response you’d get from the police here in Australia.
You’ve been with Royal Enfield for 25 years, and the company has gone through some pretty big changes in that time, what bike release are you most proud of?
BGR: It would be the twins platform, which we wanted to bring in because that was the first time we had our UK tech centre and India tech centre come together. We knew this product had to be good so that globally it would get accepted. When we launched, Siddarth came back and said I think we have really cracked the code, the motorcycle has been very well accepted. That is etched into my head. If you do the right things, you’ll be successful.
ROSS: How important to Royal Enfield are flagship stores like the one at Moto Machine?
ANUJ: What you see around us is something magical. This is a one of its kind store in the world. It is among the biggest store and the most lifestyle store that Royal Enfield has across the world. So for us it's a great pleasure to have a store like this, which brings together the whole community. This is truly a lifestyle place. That's how tastefully Dave, the dealer principal has done it.
ROSS: Yes, it’s impressive. Have you got plans to create more stores like this?
ANUJ: In the last nine years when we entered this market, we have been growing consistently. We have been growing our customer base, we have been growing our dealer base. We have been expanding and the great thing is that a lot of the new dealers are opening more and more exclusive stores. That clearly tells us how the brand is doing in this country. I think we will open up a few more stores like this, but we'll make sure the dealers are happy opening it, that they stay invested emotionally, financially, and they're profitable.
ROSS: I read an article about a few years ago from Siddarth Lal, who said Royal Enfield wanted to dominate the mid capacity segment of the market. I think its safe to say that you have achieved that. Where do you want Royal Enfield to be in the next 10 years?
We are a 123-year-old startup, that's what we say. We are a very agile company and we listen to the consumer. When you listen to the consumer and live the life of the consumer along with them, ride along with them, be the part of the community, it really helps. We are very open about it.
That's what we are. So all along we have been saying that pure motor cycling is the fundamental. Our focus also has to be in middle weight.
In India we have a market share of about 90%. Outside India, our market share is only about 9%. So there's a huge scope in which we can actually get into the international markets.
We just started a rider's club in Europe. When we announced it, about 14,500 people signed up to that. It means the brand is getting accepted. We are working on a brand building exercise and as of now we have almost 1,050 outlets outside India and about 2000 in India.
We have three platforms, new products which have been launched and new products are going to be launched. We feel that there is a huge potential for Royal Enfield to give the entire motorcycling world a surprise.
I think the world is actually moving from higher capacity motorcycles. Not everyone wants that. People are saying the motorcycle is taking control of me, I should control the motorcycle. So the people are actually coming down from the big intimidating motorcycles to very accessible aspirational motorcycles. There are also people who are actually saying I don't want a commuter motorcycle that doesn’t have character. So Royal Enfield is there in the sweet spot in the middleweight and we will continue to focus that because we strongly believe as a team that there is a huge potential. That's what is a success for us in India and that's what be a success in the outside market also.
ROSS: You are on the board of Stark Future and Royal Enfield owns about 11% share of the company. How are Stark Future and Royal Enfield working together and is there any plan to release an electric Royal Enfield?
BGR: We saw a lot of similarities in the thinking between us as company and Stark motorcycles. That's why we invested into that company. Currently what is happening is we have a technical collaboration. We are working on where Stark can add value to us and where we can add value back to the Stark. Especially in light weighting, performance and modular design. Stark is helping us think through these things, and we help Stark in terms of scale, manufacturing, supply chain and the issues which are there. How do we do a ramp up because Stark is a startup. So it's a collaborative work, we are there for long-term and our relationship is building… and over a period of time you will see some more very good motorcycles from Royal Enfield also.
ROSS: That was a very wry smile there BGR. OK, easier question question, if you could only pick one motorcycle from the Royal Enfield range which one would it be?
BGR: That’s actually very difficult to me. It’s like asking which child is your favourite. Having said, I like adventure touring. So if I'm given a chance, probably I'll pick the new Himalayan. I already have one because I get to test the motorcycles. I will buy one and I'll keep it. But incidentally, I must tell you, when we were actually testing the new Himalayan, the whole the D platform, we were doing back to back with the 411cc and we were testing it in all the Himalayas. Along with that, myself and our management team, for about seven days. I then decided to buy the old Himalayan also, so let's say I have both now.
ROSS: Thanks so much for the chat, and I’m really looking forward to seeing what you’ve got coming up. Any inside info, Electric Himalayan? 750cc Interceptor? Updated Continental GT with Showa suspension? 450cc Liquid cooled cruiser, can you give me anything?
BGR:…
For the record, BGR just gave me another wry smile.
It is easy to see why the brand is doing so well both in India and internationally. The management team are passionate about the Royal Enfield brand but are also passionate about motorcycling in general and I am certain that will be successful for many years to come.
Photography by Tom Fossati and Ross Stanford
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