Honda Motorcycles and Scooters India (HMSI) will continue with its strategy of focusing on the middle-weight category by having a product mix of imported, assembled and made-in-India two-wheelers.

The company had announced its plans of creating a separate vertical for its premium bikes with an exclusive distribution chain prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. Faced with an unprecedented lockdown and consequent loss of business, HMSI may have to “re-align” plans with a lesser number of premium outlets.

“We have a totally new business with separate showrooms under the brand name Big Wings where we will be retailing our premium bikes. There might be delay in the implementation due to Covid-19 but we are committed to the business,” Yadvinder Singh Guleria, director, sales and marketing, HMSI, told The Telegraph.

The company now retails the CBR1000 RR, the CBR Fireblade, the Forza 300 as completely built units (CBUs) under Big Wings. The CB300 R, the CBR 650R and the Africa Twin retail as completely knocked down units (CKDs).

“We are going to mass manufacture our products under Big Wing. We need to bring costs down to make this business viable,” said Guleria.

The company will have a mix of CBUs, CKDs and made in India products. The CB300 R will be manufactured at its plant. There were plans of having 22 shop-in-shops for Big Wing before the pandemic. The company might have to scale that down.

On the possible return of business, Guleria said the industry had witnessed an 18 per cent decline in growth last year. “We knew that the trend would continue in 2020 too with the technology transfer making BS-VI vehicles dearer by 10-15 per cent. But nobody had planned for the lockdown. In the first quarter, business only happened in June,” Guleria said.

Though the company has 95 per cent of its dealers operating but the rising numbers of Covid infections have put an uncertainty as several cities and parts of cities are going under lockdown.

“The local administration is taking the decision of lockdowns. Certain areas are under curfew, the hours of operation are also controlled, then there is the even-odd rule. While shops are open on one flank of a street, the opposite flank might be shut down,” said Guleria.

Stating that there might be any recovery any time soon, the HMSI senior vice-president said: “The first festival, Ratha Yatra, is already over and we have not seen any sales. In fact, Rath Yatra sales were down by 50 per cent as compared to last year,” said Guleria. “The strategy is to keep the foundation strong, align to a new normal, digitization, santisation and keep working on continuity of business,” added the senior vice president.