Royal Enfield is an Indian motorcycle manufacturing company with factories in Chennai, India. Originally a British motorcycle company, Royal Enfield and indigenous Madras Motors, it is now a subsidiary of Eicher Motors Limited, an Indian automaker.[9] The company makes the Royal Enfield Bullet, and other single-cylinder motorcycles.[10] Established in 1893, Royal Enfield is the oldest motorcycle brand in the world still in production, with the Bullet model enjoying the longest motorcycle production run of all time.

1. 1
CASE STUDY ON THE SUCCESSFUL JOURNEY OF ROYAL
ENFIELD BULLETBIKES IN INDIA
VARUN KESAVAN, RESEARCH SCHOLAR, E – MAIL ID –
varunkesavan@yahoo.com
Royal Enfield is an Indian motorcycle manufacturing company with factories
in Chennai, India. Originally a British motorcycle company, Royal Enfield and
indigenous Madras Motors, it is now a subsidiary of Eicher Motors Limited, an
Indian automaker.[9] The company makes the Royal Enfield Bullet, and other single-
cylinder motorcycles.[10] Established in 1893, Royal Enfield is the oldest motorcycle
brand in the world still in production, with the Bullet model enjoying the longest
motorcycle production run of all time.

2. 2
HISTORY
The Indian government looked for a suitable motorcycle for its police and army, for
patrolling the country's border. The Royal Enfield Bullet was chosen as the most
suitable bike for the job. The Indian government ordered 800 350 cc model
Bullets.[11][12] In 1955, the Redditch company partnered with Madras Motors in India to
form 'Enfield India' to assemble, under licence, the 350 cc Royal
Enfield Bullet motorcycle in Madras (now called Chennai).[13] The tooling was sold to
Enfield India so that they could manufacture components. By 1962, all components
were made in India. The Indian Enfield uses the 1960 engine (with metric bearing
sizes), Royal Enfield still makes an essentially similar bike in the 350 cc and 500 cc
models, along with several different models for different market segments.[14]
In 1990, Royal Enfield collaborated with the Eicher Group, an automotive company in
India, and merged with it in 1994.[15] Apart from bikes, Eicher Group is involved in the
production and sales of tractors, commercial vehicles, and automotive gears. Although
Royal Enfield experienced difficulties in the 1990s, and ceased motorcycle production at
their Jaipur factory in 2002,[16] by 2013 the company opened a new primary factory in
the Chennai suburb of Oragadam on the strength of increased demand for its
motorcycles. The original factory at Tiruvottiyur became secondary, and continues to
produce engines and some motorcycle models.[17][18] In 2014 Royal Enfield
appointed Pierre Terblanche as the head of new product design.[19][20]

3. 3
In January 2015, the company announced the appointment of Rudratej ‘Rudy’ Singh as
President of Royal Enfield. Singh was previously a Vice President of Unilever in
Singapore.[8][5] Royal Enfield announced its first takeover of another company in May,
2015 with the purchase of a UK motorcycle design and manufacturing firm, Harris
Performance Products,[21][22] that had previously developed the chassis of the Royal
Enfield Continental GT Cafe Racer.[23]
Royal Enfield currently sells motorcycles in more than 50 countries. Royal Enfield
surpassed Harley-Davidson in global sales in 2015,[24][25] and received an
acknowledgment from US President Barack Obama as the guest of honor at the
2015 Delhi Republic Day parade. "I saw the Republic Day daredevils on Royal Enfield
motorcycles,"[26] Obama said, adding that "the secret service doesn't let me ride
motorcycles, especially not on my head."[27] He again acknowledged the Border Security
Force riders later in the day, saying "I would, by the way, not drive a motorcycle after
watching those incredible acrobats."[28]
In August 2015, Royal Enfield Motors announced it is establishing its North American
headquarters and a dealership in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with the intention to offer three
bikes, the Bullet 500, Classic 500 and Continental GT 535 Cafe Racer as they feel this
engine size represents an underserved market. The dealership will be Royal Enfield's
first company-owned store in the U.S., according to Rod Copes, president of Royal
Enfield North America.[8][29] The company wants to establish about 100 dealerships in
American cities starting with Milwaukee.

4. 4
"I live here, so I am biased. But in my mind, Milwaukee is kind of the center of
motorcycling in the United States," said Copes, a former Harley-Davidson
executive.[30] "We view this as kind of our first flagship dealership," he added.[31]
Later in August 2015, parent-business Eicher announced its entry in Indonesia as a part
of its global strategy in the mid-sized (250-750 cc) motorcycle segment, initially starting
retail operations from a dealership in Jakarta.[6][32] From April to September, 2015, Royal
Enfield's domestic sales were 50% higher than the previous year, despite a declining
motorcycle market in India.[33]
In 2017, Royal Enfield added new variants of the Classic 350 and 500 motorcycles.
While the Royal Enfield Classic 350 gets Gun Grey as a new color option, the Classic
500 will now come in Stealth Black colour. Royal Enfield has unveiled the 650 cc twin-
cylinder engine at the Technology Centre in Leicestershire, England, on November
2017. This will power the next generation of Royal Enfield motorcycles. Royal Enfield is
going to showcase this at the EICMA (Milan Motorcycle Show), starting from November
7 in Italy.

5. 5
PRODUCTION FACILITIES
1. Thiruvottiyur, Chennai [35]
2. Oragadam, Chennai [36][37]
3. Sipcot Industrial Park, Vallam Vadagal, Chennai
REASONS BEHIND THE SUCCESS OF ROYAL ENFIELD
BULLETBIKES IN INDIA
 Very much Indian, very much desi
Though Royal Enfield, the company was originally born in the UK, the brand image
transformation has been successfully carried over by Indian owners after the company
exited UK market back in 1967. So much so, that Royal Enfield is now blindly known as
“Indian origin” company. That’s itself is a big testimony of company’s India-centric
operations.
 Cult fan following
Royal Enfield has millions of die-hard fans, not only in India but abroad as well. Plus,
Royal Enfield riders are probably the most brand loyal customers too. No any regular
novice biker would wait for 5-8 months to get delivery of his new bike.

6. 6
 Royal Enfield owners stand by it
Royal Enfield owners invest their time, money and attention on the machines to keep
them going, years after years.
 Company current growth rate is phenomenal.
 Royal Enfield is constantly registering 40-50% YoY (year on year) growth for the last
three years.
 It has already surpassed global giant, Harley Davidson (=2.67 lakhs bikes) by selling
3 lakhs units in 2014
 Due to high demand, the current average waiting period of a Royal Enfield bike is 5
month and to acknowledge the customer’s interest, the company is all set to
increase the production capacity to 52,000 bikes every month by December 2015.
 Royal Enfield recently sold out it’s inventory of 200 units of limited edition ‘Despatch’
bike in less than 26 minutes in an ‘online only’ sale.
 Royal Enfield bikes are now sold in more than 40 countries worldwide.
 Only Indian company to offer some serious official
merchandising
Royal Enfield has a dedicated e-commerce website for it’s official apparels, like tees,
jackets, shoes, belts, badges, diaries and lot more.

7. 7
 Company hates ad. agencies
Royal Enfield wants to build the idea of leisure motorcycle through actual motorcycling
and not through conventional adertisements which are rigid in nature.
Wieden+Kennedy is the only ad. agency working with Royal Enfield since past 10 years
but the marketing and brand building exercise is mostly focused on creating better in-
store experience and greater youth connection.
 Famous people have ridden or owned a Royal Enfield
These are few of many celebrities who never doubted Royal Enfield motorcycles and
have ridden or owned one themselves.
 Only Indian motorcycle brand to be an integral part of
Indian Army
If the world’s 4th largest army of active troops has shown trust in an Indian-made
motorcycle for it’s operations, there is no need to seek approvals from anybody about
Royal Enfield anymore.