Shirish Kulkarni, chairman, DSK Motowheels, told sister publication Autocar Professional recently that the entire CKD (completely knocked down) operations were shifted from the Wai (near Satara) facility to the company-owned upcoming facility in Talegaon, approximately 50km from Pune, in January 2016.

 

This shift had become necessary since the company was facing capacity constraints at the Wai unit where it was assembling the Benelli and Hyosung bikes. Last heard in December, the capacity at the Wai unit was ramped up to 25 units a day from an initial 10 units a day when the company had started its operations four years ago.

In December last year, on the sidelines of the commercial launch of the Benelli TNT 25 in Pune, Kulkarni had said that his company had acquired 22 acres of land at Talegaon to set-up a full-fledged bike assembly facility.

 

The current assembly capacity at the Talegaon plant, which is under construction, is 350 units per month under its first phase. “We plan to set-up an assembly capacity of 50,000 units per year, in a single shift, under phase two. We are planning to officially inaugurate the plant by August-September 2016,” confirmed Kulkarni.

 

The company, which commercially launched five premium bikes under Italy’s Benelli brand in March 2015, added its sixth and the most affordable product – the 249cc Benelli TNT 25 – to its portfolio in December 2015. The TNT 25 was the first single-cylinder model from DSK Benelli, and it came with a starting price tag of Rs 1.68 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi).

 

The naked-street Benelli TNT 25 holds strategic importance for the company as it not just consolidates Benelli’s positioning in the local market as a capable Italian motorcycle brand, but it also boosts the market reach for DSK Motowheels. Yhe bike maker plans to enter into several Tier II towns with this product.

 

Precisely, at the affordable end of the mid-sized bike segment, DSK Benelli stands as the only brand to offer a single-cylinder 249cc motorcycle (via TNT 25) as well as slightly bigger, twin-cylinder, 300cc motorcycle, (via TNT 300) in its local portfolio. The Benelli TNT 25, which potentially competes with KTM 200 Duke, Bajaj Pulsar RS200, Kawasaki’s Z250 and Mahindra Two Wheelers’ Mojo, is understood to substantially pep up the sales from the lower end for the company.

 

With its six-model portfolio, DSK Motowheels plans to sell 2,500 units under the Benelli brand via 15 dealerships by the end of March 2016. On the other hand, it aims to sell close to 1,500 units under its South Korean partner Hyosung via DSK Hyosung’s existing pan-India network of 35 dealerships during the ongoing fiscal.