Giant eyes 15% share in India's premium bicycle segment

International bicycle brand Giant has entered the Indian retail cycle market with a target to acquire 15% share in India's premium bicycle segment.

The company launched its first store in Mumbai on Wednesday in association with Element Retail. The brand will compete with the likes of Firefox in India.

Aditya Bafna

Giant sees a great potential in the Indian market and expects a growth of around 7-9 % over the next year, said Aditya Bafna, Managing Director, Element Retail.

“Currently, the cycling market is of 16mn units per year, out of which premium is 0.25 mn units. The brand intends to have 15% of the market share of premium units,” he said.

The price of the cycles ranges from Rs 35,000 to Rs 1,080,000. The brand offers a wide range of on-road, X-road, off-road and youth cycles, along with LIV, an in-house women-oriented brand. Serving as an all-under-one-roof outlet, the brand also offers components to address every biking need, along with the trainers to educate customers on cycles. 

Including the marketing activities, the brand has invested around Rs 8 crore in the store and targets to sell 900 cycles by the end of 2019, and 3,000 by the end of 2020. The brand is currently focusing on digital and social media for marketing, and refraining from the traditional mediums.

Bafna feels the cycle market in India is very nascent with challenges like import duty, and sensitivity among people in terms of pricing. For four to five months, the brand is going to be stagnant with one store, and by the end of this FY, plans to open up five more stores.

Bafna, who has been instrumental in launching the retail presence of brands such as Jockey, Speedo and Asics in India, said the brand is targeting people of the age group of 18-45 years and working professionals with around Rs 1 lakh monthly income.

For the last six months, the brand has been testing the market to understand people’s expectations. Bafna feels that the number of fitness enthusiasts is bigger in number in the city. And to give them the exclusivity, the brand came up with the idea of the experience store.

The brand chose Mumbai as a location for its first store to increase its visibility. Bafna said the actual target is tier II cities because of the broader roads, less traffic and pollution.

To promote the habit of cycling before selling cycles, the brand plans to build a community for biking enthusiasts. Apart from this, it is also planning to work with the traffic police department to develop infrastructure to support the hobby of cycling.

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