Royal Enfield plans to strengthen its international presence, including setting up assembly plants in Nepal and Bangladesh, according to CEO B Govindarajan.

When asked about international plans in the new fiscal year, Govindarajan said, “Our focus now is on North America, Latin America, APAC region, Bangladesh and Nepal and Europe.” He further said, “We will also be looking at the SAARC countries. We could not do some numbers (last fiscal) only because of the legislation.”

The company is in process of setting up assembly plants in Nepal and Bangladesh as it cannot export its fully built motorcycles from India to these countries due to legislation, Govindarajan said, adding these would be done through local partners. Alpha Automotives Pvt. Ltd is the authorised distributor of Royal Enfield in Nepal.

On the timeline for setting up the assembly plants, he said for Nepal the company expects to have the plant in the ongoing fiscal but for Bangladesh, it may take a bit longer. At present, the company has assembly units in Argentina, Colombia, Thailand, and Brazil.

Apart from statutory requirements, he said another reason for setting up assembly plants for completely knocked down (CKD) units in international markets is to be closer to the consumers and instil confidence in the company for the long term to them.

We reported last August that Royal Enfield is planning to establish a local assembly unit in Nepal. The assembly facility will be set up in collaboration with TG Auto Group in Jeetpur, Bara. TG Auto Group, under Triveni Group, has already registered with the Department of Industry for assembling Royal Enfield motorcycles in Nepal.

The group has proposed to invest Rs 38 crore in the industry through TG Auto Group to assemble motorcycles in Nepal. The industry will have the capacity to assemble 8,000 motorcycles annually.

The Government of Nepal has taken a policy to encourage the vehicle assembly industry in Nepal. Currently, Bajaj and TVS companies are assembling their two-wheelers in Nepal. Similarly, Yamaha has also commenced the trial production of its motorcycles.

With inputs from PTI