Royal Enfield crossed the 100,000 sales milestone in exports in FY22-23 and has started a completely-knocked-down plant in Brazil taking its total CKD plants internationally to four.

The other three overseas plants for the company are in Colombia, Thailand, and Argentina. The company now has a market share of 7 to 8 per cent in the middle-weight category in the Americas, said Siddhartha Lal, managing director of Eicher Motors Ltd.

The company is bullish about its overseas operations despite the blips caused by macroeconomic factors. It plans to distribute directly in the UK while venturing into expanding further in overseas markets.

Talking about the rationale to distribute in the UK directly, Lal said: “In some markets, we have a master distributor who appoints dealers. But we don’t do that in the US, Thailand, or Brazil. In the UK, too, instead of having a master distributor, we are doing marketing and distribution and we are appointing dealers ourselves. We are directly dealing with our dealers.”

Regarding the middleweight category, the 250cc to 750cc segment, Lal said: “We developed this category both in India and outside. We can also become leaders in this category internationally as we are in the domestic market. People generally migrate from a heavier bike to this segment where bikes are easier to ride and fun to handle. We are ready to grow this market internationally where we have 150,000 retail outlets.”