Last year, 300 workers put together 52,000 Royal Enfields from a sole factory off the dusty Tiruvottiyur High Road in Chennai. And still, customers had to wait over a year to get their hands on their machines. After almost two decades in the red, how did the motorcycle manufacturer script one of the most dramatic turnarounds in motoring history? Yoshitau00a0Sengupta says the idea of 'adventure' and 'passion' have a lot to do with it


The Royal Enfield Bullet has travelled to the most dangerous and
darkest places in the country. With only 52,000 bikes produced by
300 workers in a nine-acre plot off the Tiruvottiyur High Road in
north Chennai, it's fair to say that the Royal Enfield isn't every biker's
pair of wheels. Add to that the costu00a0-- a little over a lakhu00a0-- and
prospective owners are narrowed down further to only the most
serious, most fanatic bike lovers.

Several people associate the Enfield with the Indian Army. It was the Army that first ordered the Royal Enfield Bullet in 1949. Later, they insisted that theu00a0 bikes be manufactured indigenously. Today, the waiting time for an Enfield can stretch up to 10 months in certain cities, but it wasn't always so. In 1994, Eicher Motors led by Vikram Lal acquired Enfield India and changed the name to Royal Enfield Motors Limited. After dominating the market for over three decades, Enfield India was bleeding in the 1980s, faced with tough competition by fuel-efficient bikes. Other Indian bike manufacturers, like Rajdoot and Yezdi faced the heat too. The smaller motorcycles were effective, and cheaper. Lal hoped to revive the Enfield, riding on its erstwhile success. But, the buyout was not enough to change the fortunes of the bike.



In 2000, after Siddharth Lal took over as the Chief Executive Officer of Royal Enfield Motors Limited, he asked board members for two years to transform the loss-making machine into the legend it once was. "There were a lot of improvements at the back-end, in terms of quality and manufacturing processes. New models were launched and the engine was refined to maintain the character while making it more modern," says a company spokesperson.



More importantly, Lal changed the image of the bike from a reliable, utility motorcycle to one that's just right for adventure trips, by introducing mystery and selectiveness to the mix. At the same time, the aura of selectivity and uniqueness was retained as workers handcrafted many of these parts, including the fuel tank
on which the trademark pinstripes are handpainted.



The past decade has seen an explosion in the number of 21 to 35 year-old buyers. Young, urban professionals with high disposable incomes, who enjoy riding and want to make a statement are the guys responsible for the surge in sales of the five models of the Enfield."We have definitely changed the target consumer. More urban riders are now opting for the Royal Enfield," says a company spokesperson. The Royal Enfield has five models: the Classic 500, Classic 350 (right), Thunderbird Twinspark, Electra Twinspark and Bullet 350 UCE. Pictures courtesy Royal Enfield Motors Limited