Royal Enfield revs up Eicher Motors' net profit

Eicher Motors, the maker of Royal Enfield `Bullet' motorcycles, posted a 38.5% rise in consolidated net profit for the March quarter, led by record bike sales and an improvement in those of commercial vehicles.

The company has lined up Rs 1,100 crore in investments over the next few years to fuel growth. The record quarter for the Royal Enfield business drove net profit to Rs 216 crore from Rs 156 crore a year earlier.Sales rose 33.5% to Rs 2,568 crore with margins seeing a jump of 210 basis points to 11.3%.

As for Royal Enfield's standalone operations, sales shot up more than 50% to Rs 961 crore, while profit rose 33% to Rs 213 crore. Margins widened to an industry best 24.1%, up 270 basis points. Royal Enfield's volumes rose 44.5% to 92,845 units, whereas commercial vehicle sales grew 10.4% to 11,020 units.

“We have had an outstanding quarter in our consolidated numbers, which includes VECV (VE Commer cial Vehicles) and Royal Enfield -best-ever quarter,“ said Eicher Motors managing director Siddharth Lal.

“Both the businesses are pulling in the weights and all the projects are going along as per the plan.

“VE Commercial Vehicles is a joint venture between the Volvo Group and Eicher Motors.

The company will be investing Rs 500 crore in its two-wheeler business, which will be utilised for the development of two engine platforms, tech centres.