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The story of a brand with the tag of "the oldest global motorcycle brand in continuous production"-
Royal Enfield
A thread
Royal Enfield
A thread
1/ First produced in 1901, Royal Enfield is the oldest motorcycle brand in the world still in production.
2/ After India's independence the new government looked for a motorcycle for the army to patrol the country's border.
3/ In 1952 the Royal Enfield Bullet was chosen as the most suitable bike for the job.
4/ In 1954, the government ordered 800 units of the 350 cc model.
5/ In 1955 the Redditch company collaborated with Madras Motors in India to form 'Enfield India' to assemble, the 350 cc Royal Enfield Bullet motorcycle in Madras.
6/ In 1990, Royal Enfield collaborated with the Eicher Group, an auto company in India, and merged with it in 1994.
7/ Before 2000, Royal Enfield was losing it's customers and failing to attract new customers.
8/ The reason for the decline in sales was because people were happy with the traditional bullet bikes, but weren't comfortable in welcoming new innovations in the bike that Enfield brought.
9/ Production dropped to 2000 bikes when 6000 bikes was the maximum production capacity.
10/ There were also complaints about engine seizures, electrical failures, oil leakages and many people found the bike to heavy to handle.
11/ That was when the board of directors at Eicher Motors decided to either shut down or sell off Royal Enfield, the company's motorcycle division.
12/ But there was one man who wasn't in favour of shutting down or selling the division, Siddhartha Lal.
13/ Siddhartha Lal was the third generation member of the family of the promoters of the Eicher group.
14/ He convinced the board that he could turnaround the current situation and asked for two years of grace period.
15/ But he wasn't alone. He recruited R.L Ravichandran in 2005 as the CEO.
16/ They faced a two way problem now. The present problems were the reason they couldn't attract new customers and solving these problems meant that they could lose their old customers.
17/ Both Lal and Ravichandran knew that whatever changes they make, they had to keep alive the authenticity of the brand.
18/ The rugged look of the bike, the head lamps and the trunks were untouchables so as to keep the authenticity of the bike alive.
19/ International experts were consulted and sound mapping carried out for over 1000 hours to ensure it produced the maximum rhythmic vibrations possible and a beat.
20/ The new engine had 30 percent fewer parts and produced 30 percent more power than the old, with better fuel efficiency.
21/ To improve sales experience new company owned showrooms were launched and dealerships expanded.
22/ Royal Enfield also began conducting rides to promote leisure biking.
23/ Finally they had turned the tide around and as they say rest is history.
24/ From selling a meager 25000 bikes in 2005, they have sold more than 700k bikes last year.
25/ Royal Enfield don't sell a bike, they sell an experience.
Was inspired to create this thread after watching this video.
@neerajarora91 @AdeParimal @investyadnya @royalenfield @sidlal
@neerajarora91 @AdeParimal @investyadnya @royalenfield @sidlal
