Bajaj Sales: Still falling, but no worries

Bajaj sent out a note saying that it recorded a 12 per cent fall in sales last month, but that they aren't worried. Bajaj, it seems, are proto-testing the new bike slated for a September launch. The bike is expected to offer an alternative to the 100cc customer and is being called a 'breakthrough' bike by Bajaj. I won't go into the numbers, but here are the three important points the note made:

1. First quarter sales have been disappointing; the focus has been on enhancing market and product mix to safeguard profitability.
   
   
2. Existing motorcycle owners desirous of repurchase represent over half of all new sales, and there is increasing evidence of their diminishing interest in the fundamentally unchanged 100 cc motorcycles currently available, contributing significantly thereby towards the industry-wide slowdown in sales.
   
   
3. In the build-up to its product-centric endeavour to reverse this trend, Bajaj successfully completed the pre-production of its all new motorcycle in June'07; a national launch is scheduled for September'07 with an initial target of 50.000 motorcycles/month to be achieved by January'08.