Yamaha's Indian arm to be its largest hub outside Japan

Motorcycle major Yamaha said it would make profit this year and clock a 23 per cent sales growth by selling 400,000 units.

The wholly owned Indian subsidiary of Yamaha Motors of Japan would also be the largest manufacturing and export hub of the parent company outside Japan in the next two years, Yamaha Motor India CEO Masahiko Shibuya said.

"We will make net profit in 2003 as we had made operating profit last year. The targeted 23 per cent sales rise and an increased product basket would help drive the bottomline," he said.

Currently, the Indonesian facility of Yamaha is the largest outside Japan with a production of 500,000 units, of which 100,000 units are exported to Mexico, and central and south American nations.

The company has so far invested Rs 700 crore (Rs 7 billion) in the Indian operation and sold 325,000 units last year which would go up to 400,000 motorcycles by the year-end.

Although he did not rule out the possibility of rolling out high-powered motorcycles in the near future, but said the company's mainstay would be the volume-driven commuter category

"The Indonesian subsidiary mainly exports two-stroke motorcycles which has relatively less margins. In terms of value, exports from India is equal to that of Indonesia," Shibuya said.