Royal Enfield on Monday announced setting up of a direct distribution subsidiary in North America, its first outside India. The move follows managing director and CEO Siddhartha Lal’s decision to relocate to the UK, effective August for a year.
The subsidiary will directly sell to dealers and even to customers as well as directly conduct all market development and support activities such as marketing, service and aftersales for the Royal Enfield brand in North America, the company informed the stock exchanges late on Monday.
The move is in line with the company’s focused international thrust of leading and expanding the global mid-sized motorcycle segment (250 CC – 750 CC) with North America representing a priority market for the company.
The current product line up in North America includes a Bullet 500CC, Classic 500CC and the Continental GT 535CC cafe racer ranging from $4,995 to $5,995. Royal Enfield has been exporting motorcycles to North America for the last 15 years through an independent distributor. The company said that all the manufacturing will continue to remain in Chennai and the company’s first fully branded store will be launched in Milwaukee that will retail its entire product line-up of motorcycles and gear.
Over the next 18 months, the company will launch several such stores in key metropolitan areas across the US and in involve in building a strong independent dealer network to maximise the brand image and sales.
