Encouraged by a strong response, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India said today it was advancing its roll-out target for its ‘Best Deal’ second-hand motorcycle chain in India.
The company said it would add another 50 such pre-owned motorcycle shops in India in the remaining nine months of the current financial year.
This will take the total such shops to 200, up from 147 at the end of March 2017 and mark the addition of 53 new shops in the current financial year.
The company had added 45 ‘Best Deal’ outlets in the last financial year that ended in March 2017.
It said a decision to speed up the opening of such shops was taken after seeing strong demand for pre-owned motorcycles in India.
“In financial year 2016-17 (ended March), sales of Honda’s pre-owned business grew by 23% which is three times that of the ‘new two-wheeler’ industry growth of only 7%,” the company said.
Honda’s Best Deal are the first such retail set-up by any two-wheeler manufacturer in India solely for the purpose of dealing in pre-owned vehicles.
The chain today comprises 150 outlets in 117 cities across 21 states of India.
The shops serve two sets of customers: Those who want to exchange their existing two-wheeler of any make for a brand new Honda two-wheeler, and those customers who want to buy a refurbished and certified pre-owned Honda two-wheeler and seek the Best Deal in the market. All brands of bikes are exchanged at the shops.
The two-wheeler maker gives two free services and six months of warranty and after-sales support on pre-owned bikes purchased from its stores.
They also help the customers change the ownership in the records at RT office.
STRONG GROWTH
It said even macro-economic setbacks, such as demonetization, didn’t seem to have much impact on the second-hand bike market.
“Interestingly in 2017 when new two wheelers industry faced challenges like demonetization and transition from BS-III to BS-IV which lead to a stunted single digit growth, there was a significant boost in demand for pre-owned two wheelers.”
“Our experience shows that pre-owned industry is evolving at a very fast pace and the replacement cycle for two-wheeler has come down to 4-5 years,” said Yadvinder Singh Guleria, Senior Vice President – Sales & Marketing.
“We see good future potential in pre-owned two-wheeler business and has advanced its expansion horizon to 200 Best Deal Outlets by the end of this fiscal itself.”