The Bajaj Auto stock is down 2.5 per cent in trading today after the company put up a poor show in January.
Its two-wheeler sales for January 2015 dropped by 12 per cent to about 2.47 lakh units from 2.81 lakh units in January 2014. The numbers don’t come as a surprise though, as the company has continuously been on a losing streak since the beginning of this fiscal.
At a time when the rest of the auto industry is witnessing a cyclical recovery in the domestic market, Bajaj’s domestic volumes have shrunk by 10-15 per cent in the April 2014-January 2015 period, compared to the same period a year-ago.
Hero MotoCorp, on the other hand has witnessed a 7-8 per cent growth in volumes.
Demand for scooters
Besides, by not having a product in the scooters segment, Bajaj has also lost out on the strong demand for scooters in this period.
Competitors such as TVS, Honda and Hero have all benefited from the same. As a result of this, Bajaj’s market share in two-wheelers has come down to around 11 per cent now, from 15 per cent a year-ago.
The poor show on the volume front has affected Bajaj’s profit growth too in the last three quarters. For the nine months ended December 2014, net sales stood at Rs 2,428 crore against Rs 2,479 crore in the same period a year-ago.