‘There is a huge potential to expand our sourcing from India’

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: Amid the general market slowdown, the last one year had some good news for bike enthusiasts in India. A gamut of sports bike makers made a beeline for the country. One such is Bologna (Italy)-based Ducati Motor Holding. It forayed into the Indian market last year through its sole importer in the country, Precision Motor India. FE’s Shweta Bhanot and Malabika Sarkar caught up with Cristiano Silei, global vice-president sales and marketing, Ducati, for his views on the company’s strategy going forward. Excerpts:

How difficult has it been to strike a connect with customers amidst the global economic meltdown?

The global market has been difficult and we have adjusted our strategy to go along with the changing dynamics of the markets. While on the one hand we have been looking to strengthen our position in our traditional markets including Italy and the US, on the other, we are trying to develop new markets such as China, Vietnam and India. The US has been relying heavily on credit and has been significantly impacted by the recession. We are preparing our strategies for the emerging markets and see potential in this region. Nobody can predict how the economic environment will shape up.

However, we are clear with our agenda to strengthen our distribution network. Overall, there has been a 15% drop in our sales across our markets. While Japan has been hit like the US, the former along with Australia are mature markets and we are growing well there. In India, we have already received 300 enquires. The bikes range between Rs 9.66 and Rs 43.36 lakh (ex-showroom India).

You forayed into India in 2008. Why did it take you one long year to set up the first showroom in the country?

We made conscious decision not to deliver our motorcycles until we had the complete infrastructure in place that could provide both sales and after-services to customers. We also wanted to open showrooms in Mumbai and Delhi almost simultaneously.

How do you plan to cater to the concerns of bike enthusiasts who are looking for a reliable after sales service offering?

This is one of the reasons why we did not deliver the bikes earlier. We wanted to put in place the complete infrastructure before going full swing in the market.We will have a national level aftersales network. All the dealerships in the country will also have service arrangements.