Bajaj Auto’s standalone net profit fell 53 per cent for the quarter ended June 30, 2020 as it was badly hit by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Net profit at the two-wheeler maker slumped to Rs 528.04 crore from Rs 1,125.67 crore in the same period of the previous year. With sales also suffering for a better part of the quarter because of the nationwide lockdown, its total revenues plunged 60 per cent to Rs 3,079.24 crore from Rs 7,755.82 crore in the year-ago period.

Bajaj Auto said that the first quarter was extremely challenging as the lockdown and other containment measures disrupted supply lines and led to a sharp decline in overall demand.

Though the firm restarted operations, sporadic localised lockdowns continue to disrupt the supply chain and are impacting the ability of the business to return to normality.

Sales in the domestic motorcycle market were nil in April and affected for a large part of May. However, June saw a decent recovery and Bajaj Auto’s performance was better than the industry.

The overall domestic sales in two-wheelers plummeted to 185,981 units compared with 610,936 units in the year-ago period while the extent of the fall in commercial vehicles sales was much more at 5,282 units against 86,217 units.

During the quarter, Bajaj Auto’s overall share in the domestic motorcycle market was 20.7 per cent against 18.5 per cent in the previous fiscal. In the mileage segment, it sold over 110,000 units. On the other hand, in the sports segment, it sold over 69,000 units. In the super-sports sector, the sales were nearly 6,000 units with a market share of 8.8 per cent.

Bajaj Auto said various measures were implemented for the entire business ecosystem, helping the customers, dealers, vendors and employees during the crisis. Salaries were paid to all employees for the entire period of March-June and work-from-home was enabled wherever possible.

Similarly, the domestic market of commercial vehicles was severely impacted due to the pandemic. While the industry recorded a decline of 91 per cent in sales, Bajaj Auto was impacted the most since it is the market leader. Its overall share in India stood at nearly 43 per cent.