Two wheelers sales up in March

 Two wheeler companies continued to post impressive sales for the month of March. Hero Honda, world's largest two-wheeler manufacturer posted a double digit growth of 10% to 3,53,342 units for March 2009 compared to 3,20,594 units in March 2008. On the annual basis the company also posted a 12% growth to 37.22 lakh two-wheelers in FY '09 against 33.37 lakh units in FY '08.

Hero Honda MD & CEO Pawan Munjal attributed the increase in sales to strong demand in semi-urban and rural markets. "We have achieved a market share of 57% in the domestic motorcycle market, despite the industry witnessing significant drop in sales on the back of slowing economy and prevailing high interest rates in the country.

The various measure to expand our product portfolio as well increase in the our network contributed to sales growth in the past fiscal year," Mr Munjal said.

The Chennai-based TVS Motor Company also reported a 4% growth to 1,21,988 units in March this year against 1,17,045 units in the same month last year.

Its growth in sales came from the rising demand for scooters, which recorded a robust 44% increase to 22,975 units in March as against 15,942 units in the same month a year ago. Its motorcycles dropped 8.46% to 55,754 units in March 2008 against 60,908 units in March last year.