Bajaj Auto-The topsey turvey journey.

Bajaj auto had a very humble beginning in 1945.It started off by selling imported two wheelers and three wheelers in India. However after independence and slowly the growth of Indian market it was quick to realize the potential in two and three wheeler segments . It obtained manufacturing licenses from Govt of India and then went public in 1960. After a technological tie up with Piaggio of Italy Bajaj started manufacturing its own products at its solo plant at Akurdi(Pune). The Vespa-150 was its flagship product at this point of time. The scooter was highly admired by the then Indian middle class and it brought Bajaj the much needed brand identification across the Indian society at large. By 1970 the company had an annual turnover of around 72 million and had sold about 100,000 vehicles. The company at this point was positioned at the correct place at the correct time. The oil crisis of 1970 had driven home the importance of low cost fuel efficient transport vehicles. The company at this critical juncture was taken over by Mr. Rahul Bajaj. Under his leadership Bajaj introduced a number of new products; the most popular among them being the Bajaj Chetak. Some of the other products included the three wheeler goods carrier, rear engine auto rickshaw etc. The growth rate was tremendous It was around this time only that Bajaj broke up its technical collaboration with Piaggio. Because of patent infringement issues Bajaj auto sales were blocked in countries like US,UK,Germany etc. Its revenue from export markets plummeted from around 133 mil to about 52 millions. Although supported by its domestic sales its total revenue rose by about 5% in the period of 1981-82, its pretax profits fell by about 50%. Bajaj was fast to identify its shortcomings .It started diversifying into other market segments like that of tractors. It also concentrated on export s to countries like SriLanka, Bangladesh along with Latin Americana and African countries. This resulted in the growth of its export sales. By the 1990s government started the liberalization of the Indian market. Foreign players were slowly trickling in with the lure of a high volume growth scenario. It faced competition by Japanese companies like Honda along with local manufactures like TVS.Its market dominance position slowly began to decline. Though it still commanded a sizable market share of about 40%.Honda then formed a partnership with local firm hero to form the hero Honda group. It with highly popular models like splendor has taken up a sizable chunk of the rural Indian two wheeler market segment.By the late late 90s bajaj had lost considerable of market share to its competitors.The market during this period typically favoured the motorbikes over

the traditional favorites scooters. Bajaj faced the uphill task of now moving into the domain of motorbike segment.The struggle continued for a few years until finally it stunned the market with the PULSAR.