TVS Motor to invest Rs 200 cr for expansion

Motorcycle maker TVS Motor Company on Thursday said it will invest Rs 200 crore (Rs 2 billion) by April next year to increase its production capacity to 28 lakh units.

The company also said it will set up a design centre in Indonesia where it has a manufacturing facility.

"There is an increasing demand and to meet that we are increasing our production capacity to 28 lakh units from the existing 21 lakh units per annum. It will entail an investment Rs 200 crore by April 2011," TVS Motor Company Chairman Venu Srinivasan told reporters on the sidelines of the SIAM summit here.

He said the company expects to sell 18 lakh of two wheelers in the domestic market and export 2,50,000 units this year. On the three-wheeler front, the company expects sales of 50,000 units.

Commenting on the overseas operation, Srinivasan said TVS expects its Indonesian arm to break even by next year. "By next year we should have a design center there," he said.

He also said TVS plans to make Brazil, where it has an assembly unit, to be the hub for the Latin American market.

"We have a capacity of assembling 50,000 units in Brazil per year. We want this to be the hub of Latin America and supply to countries like Columbia, which is an interesting market," Srinivasan said.

The company assembles its motor cycle 'Apache' in Brazil right now. He also said the company is looking to increase export to Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and ASEAN countries.

TVS Motor reported a rise of 14.80 per cent in its total two-wheeler sales at 15,21,912 units in the last fiscal year.