Project Report on Comparative Analysis of 4-Stroke Bikes
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Project Report On Comparative Analysis Of 4-Stroke Bikes Submitted towards the Partial fulfillment of Master of Business Administration (Affiliated to U.P. Technical University, Lucknow) Under the guidance of: Submitted by: Supervisor Name Your Name Roll: - CONTENTS A) Title page B) Acknowledgement C) Certificate 1) INTRODUCTION 2) INDUSTRY OVERVIEW 3) COMPANY PROFILE 4) MARKETING STRATEGIES 4) LITERATURE REVIEW 5) RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 6) DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION 7) FINDINGS 8) SUGGESTIONS 9) CONCLUSION 10) REFERENCES AND ANNEXURES ACKNOWLEDGEMENT We express our sincere gratitude to our project guide Mr. Gaurav Kumar Verma for giving us the opportunity to work on this project. We are thankful to our Project Guide for their guidance and encouragement without which the satisfactory completion of our project would not have been possible. They have been a constant source of inspiration to us, showing all the patience and abundant encouragement throughout the project duration. Also, we are thankful to the librarians and staff of our institute, for their continued support and invaluable encouragement. Above all, we are thankful to the “Almighty” and to our parents for their blessings, humble support and showing their belief in us. TRIBHUVAN NARAYAN INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION HISTORY OF BIKES Through the years… Bob Stark has been involved with Indian motorcycles throughout his entire life. Bob's father became an Indian dealer in 1918, after returning from military service during World War I. Bob still has a photo of his mother riding in a sidecar in 1923. Since Bob was born in 1934, his parents were involved with Indian cycles long before that. At the age of 10 Bob started staying around his fathers shop, and developed quite an interest in the Indian cycles. The mechanic considered him a pest, but allowed him to do minor items, such as changing oil & polishing cycles. By 1946 Bob was riding his own Whizzer motorbike, and in 1947 graduated to a Cushman scooter. By 1950, he had learned quite a bit more about the cycles and got his first Indian, a 741 Scout with skirted fenders. He bought the cycle for $50.00 without his father’s permission and had it for 4 months before his father knew it was his. By 1951, Bob purchased the '48 Chief, which he still rides. In addition, his father deemed the $50.00 741 Scout to be unsafe. So he traded a new Triumph 650cc even up for it. That was the best cycle deal in Bob's life. 1951 also was high school graduation, and the start of college. Some extra money was obtained during the next 3 summers by working on cycles. Bobs father had sold the Indian shop in 1952, so the work was done in the "ex" chicken coop at home. 1955 was the big change, graduation from Case Institute of Technology, Akron Ohio (Now called Case/Western) with a degree in mechanical engineering. This was a year of working days at Goodyear Tire & Rubber and nights on Indians. A short time was spent in the army during 1956 & 1957. The off hours were spent at Herb Reiber' s Indian shop in Washington D.C. The '48 Chief (purchased in 1951) was kept about 2 miles from Fort Belvoir. After an army discharge in the fall of 1957 Bob returned to Goodyear Tire during the day and worked on Indians at home during the evenings. By 1957 he reopened his fathers shop part time, selling the Royal Enfield built Indians, servicing them, and servicing the older Chiefs & Scouts. By 1958 Goodyear Tire was no longer in the picture as Bob quit to spend full time at the cycle shop. In 1959 health reasons mandated a move to Florida, and more building of cycles at home, while working at Martin Marietta Corporation. 1961 was a move to California, and the nominal home workshop for night work. Later 60' s meant trips back to Florida as part of the launch crew on the first 2 moon shots from Cape Canaveral. Gary was born during this time frame and started riding between Shorty & Bob by age 2. In 1970, Starklite Cycle was formed and Bob was back to full time work on Indians. Again, Starklite took on the Indian dealership, this time for the Taiwan/Italian built models. This was different, but the main business was restoring the older Indians and manufacturing parts for them. By now Gary was riding. He got his first Indian at age 5, and his second one at age 7. He was given a '47 Chief at age 5 and he finished his restoration of it at age 16. As the years have progressed, Indian parts have become increasingly scarcer. This has led to the need to design and build increasing amounts of Indian parts. In 1989, Gary graduated from California State University of Long Beach with an Engineering degree in Manufacturing Engineering. The engineering has helped both Bob and Gary in the production of what we believe to be the best quality of Indian parts available. The line now stands at over 3000 items. Shortly has done her part by putting up with all of this for nearly 30 years, as well as handling most of the work in connection with the Indian Motorcycle Club. Gary has started helping her the last couple or years with much of the mailing and typesetting, as he has become very proficient on the computer. In the fall of 1988, Starklite moved from Fullerton to Perris. The shop in Fullerton was left in the hands of Wilson Plank, who was employed there for 14 years. He is currently operating it under the name of American Indian Specialists and is running it very successfully working on Indians. As you can see from this brief background, The Stark Family has been involved in Indians from 1918 to the present with virtually no interruptions. Starklite is a family owned business involving Bob, Shorty, and Gary, as well as others. Gary is the third generation to be involved. The most gratifying part of the business has been the amount of nice people we have met. We consider them friends, not just a customer. INDUSTRY PROFILE When we think of Indian Two-wheelers market, we think of stodgy Vespa based models of scooters and Japanese models of motorcycles, but now the situation is completely changed as the industry is sizzling hot with continuous poaching of scooters by motorcycles as well as regular launches of new models by all players. Earlier the shelf life of models was in tune of 10-15 years but now it has come down drastically due to intense competition. Hero Honda is trying to save its dominance in motorcycles market from rigorous attacks of Bajaj Auto and TVS while Bajaj Auto is changing its portfolio by heavy inclusion of motorcycles in it. In this battle LML Group, Kinetic Group, Yamaha Motors, Honda Motors and Royal Enfield are also trying to have a say. INDUSTRY OVERVIEW (TWO-WHEELERS AND THREE-WHEELERS) Two-Wheelers India is the second largest manufacturer and producer of two-wheelers in the world. It stands next only to Japan and China in terms of the number of two-wheelers produced and domestic sales respectively. This distinction was achieved due to variety of reasons like restrictive policy followed by the Government of India towards the passenger car industry, rising demand for personal transport, inefficiency in the public transportation system etc. The Indian two-wheeler industry made a small beginning in the early 50s when Automobile Products of India (API) started manufacturing scooters in the country. Until 1958, API and Enfield were the sole producers. In 1948, Bajaj Auto began trading in imported Vespa scooters and three-wheelers. Finally, in 1960, it set up a shop to manufacture them in technical collaboration with Piaggio of Italy. Although various government and private enterprises entered the fray for scooters, the only new player that has lasted till today is LML. Under the regulated regime, foreign companies were not allowed to operate in India. It was a complete sellers market with the waiting period for getting a scooter from Bajaj Auto being as high as 12 years. The motorcycles segment was no different, with only three manufacturers viz Enfield, Ideal Jawa and Escorts. While Enfield bullet was a four-stroke bike, Jawa and the Rajdoot were two-stroke bikes. The motorcycle segment was initially dominated by Enfield 350cc bikes and Escorts 175cc bike. The two-wheeler market was opened to foreign competition in the mid-80s. Moreover, the then market leaders -Escorts and Enfield - were caught unaware by the onslaught of the 100cc bikes of the four Indo-Japanese joint ventures. With the availability of fuel-efficient low power bikes, demand swelled, resulting in Hero Honda - then the only producer of four stroke bikes (100cc category), gaining a top slot. The first Japanese motorcycles were introduced in the early eighties. TVS Suzuki and Hero Honda brought in the first two-stroke and four-stroke engine motorcycles respectively. These two players initially started with assembly of CKD kits, and later on progressed to indigenous manufacturing. In the 90s the major growth for motorcycle segment was brought in by Japanese motorcycles, which grew at a rate of nearly 25% CAGR in the last five years. The industry had a smooth ride in the 50s, 60s and 70s when the Government prohibited new entries and strictly controlled capacity expansion. The industry saw a sudden growth in the 80s. The industry witnessed a steady growth of 14% leading to a peak volume of 1.9mn vehicles in 1990. The entry of Kinetic Honda in mid-eighties with a variometric scooter helped in providing ease of use to the scooter owners.