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NT Bureau
Chennai, Oct 2:

        TVS Motor Company is all set to capitalise the growth potential of the three-wheeler market with the launch of its variants over the next couple of months.

        Under its two-wheeler category, the launch of TVS Flame would strengthen the company's presence in the executive segment, which is expected to provide an impetus to sales. The 110 cc TVS StaR City will be available during the upcoming festival season and will give sales a further thrust. Along with the recently launched TVS Apache RTR, the company will offer a complete motorcycle portfolio to consumers. The company is well on course for the new launches in various segments as scheduled.

        As for the sales figures, the company reported a total two-wheeler sales of 1,15,091 units in September 2007 as against 1,62,200 units last year. During this month, TVS Motor Company has projected an increase in sales of approximately 20 per cent over September 2007. The company predicts that sales would receive a shot in the arm with the launch of the new 110cc TVS StaR City and the new range of the TVS Scooty.

        Currently, the company's motorcycle portfolio is skewed towards the retail finance dependant entry level and is practically absent from the executive segment, which accounts for over 40 per cent of the motorcycle sales. The new product launches will fill this gap and help the company to leverage the entire product portfolio in future.

        In the scooter segment, TVS Scooty continued to post higher growth figures over last year clocking 27,199 units in September 2007 when compared to 24,890 units, recording a growth of 9% over the same period last year. The launch of TVS Scooty Teenz EV is expected to further strengthen this segment as well.

        On the export front, TVS Motor Company exported 13,036 units of two wheelers in September 2007 recording a growth of 26 per cent over September 2006 figure of 10,339 units.

        However, financiers are making concerted efforts to get customers back into automobile showrooms over the next two months, which is the peak festival season. Customers are likely to benefit from lower inflation and likely reduction in interest rates and will opt for fresh purchases. This would lead to an increase in sales during the forthcoming festival season. Reduced sales in September 2007 is mainly due to prevailing high rates of interest and restricted availability of retail finance. Further, the festival season is delayed this year, when compared to last year. During 2006, both the important festivals of Dussera and Deepavali were celebrated in October and consequently, placement of stocks with the dealers for the festival season was effected in September. This resulted in better sales in September 2006.