Ahoy Bikes: Targeting Mid-Premium Bicycle Market
Ahoy Bikes, which forayed into bicycle making in 2018, and recently announced a new range of bicycles with electroluminescent technology, is planning to market its products countrywide and aims to increase its dealership network to 300 dealers by year-end.
The company is aiming to target the mid-premium range of bicycles, which is also termed as the 'affordable' segment. In this segment, Ahoy Bikes is set to offer quality products. The company is said to be developing a complete range of Luminous (brand of) bicycles. The company is also creating a whole range of Bicycles for kids, hybrid models, city bikes, etc., Anil Mitra, Director of Ahoy Bikes said on February 10, the day it launched its new range of bicycles equipped with electroluminescent technology with price starting from Rs 20,000.
“We were basically making bicycle components majorly for OEMs and for replacement market and eventually into building bicycles by launching this ‘Ahoy’ brand in 2018 as a logical progression. At the same time, we shut down the bicycle component facility. Although we are not into the numbers game, we look forward to crack the domestic bicycle industry with our series of groundbreaking products,” Mitra said.
Citing All India Cycles Manufacturers Association (AICMA) data, the company said the industry was growing at 5-7 percent every year, but owing to the coronavirus pandemic, it is now expected to grow at 15-20 percent, led by a surge in first-time users. As per the AICMA data, India is the second-largest manufacturer of bicycles in the world and the country is the third-largest consumer of bicycles. It is also worth mentioning that 22 million units are made in the country every year and the annual turnover is Rs 7,000 crore. According to industry numbers, 22 million cycles were sold in 2018-19, and 18 million were sold in 2019-20.
Bicycle manufacturers Ahoy Bikes has set up a dedicated greenfield facility in Haryana with a monthly capacity of 10,000 units and it plans to double the output in a phase-wise manner
Abhishek Mitra, Director, Ahoy Bikes said, “We have sufficient capacity at the moment. With new products that are on the anvil, we are confident of enhancing our Average Selling Price per unit which will help us treble our turnover this Financial year. Our long-term vision is to be among the topmost players in the market in the midsegment range. But again, we are not in the numbers game.”
