Trek Bicycles lines up plans to expand retail footprint in India

Carbon fibre bikes are produced in the US, then there is a production facility in Germany.

Trek Bicycles, the Indian subsidiary of US-based Trek Bikes, a global leader in manufacture of bicycles and related products, has lined up aggressive expansion plans including increasing number of retail stores across the country to 70 by 2020, a top official has said.

Trek Bicycles India has sold over 27,000 units since entering India in 2007, country manager, Navneet Banka said. "For us, the focus area is to expand the market. We want to grow. Currently our retail store count is at 25.

We like to see ourselves having 60-70 stores two years down the line," he told PTI. Elaborating, he said the size of the super premium segment was around 0.2 per cent, of the total 16 million cycles sold every year. "Currently, the (super premium) market is at 30,000 units.

We would love to see or help to grow the market to 60,000 units (by 2020)," he said. He said the focus was on expanding the retail footprint across the country over the next two years.

According to him, the size of the domestic bicycle business was around 16 million cycles of which 98 per cent of the market comprised standard bicycles with price ranging from Rs 3,500 to Rs 8,000.

"Coming to the super premium segment... Super premium bicycles cost Rs 25,000 and go up to Rs 20 lakh that is the range Trek Bicycles offers.

This segment is small of the overall pie," he said. Responding to a query about the presence of many players in the segment, Banka said, "most of them operate through a distributor.

The difference we bring in is as a subsidiary, we bring in global expertise. We are focused on expanding the market." "The key difference you will find when a customer walks into a Trek Retail store is the approach of the staff itself.

We are training the sales and service consultants. The whole idea is to provide an Indian consumer, the same level of experience that he or she would get anywhere across the world," he said. To a query on producing the bicycles in India, he said Trek bikes are made in various facilities across the world.

Carbon fibre bikes are produced in the US, then there is a production facility in Germany. "In India we are importing the products. The focus is on expanding the market here," he said.

(With inputs from agencies.)