Posted on 09/01/2015 11:26:57 PM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
With less than 1,000 motorcycles sold in the U.S. last year, the Royal Enfield brand has a somewhat underground presence. But the newly hired Milwaukee team — equipped with years of experience at Harley-Davidson Inc. — plans to change that.
Royal Enfield last month announced it has set up a North American headquarters for distribution and sales in Milwaukee, with Rod Copes, former head of global sales and customer service for Milwaukee-based Harley-Davidson Inc. (NYSE: HOG), at the helm as president.
Copes' team set aggressive distribution goals for the end of 2016, looking to serve the middleweight motorcycle market as a complement, not a competitor, to Harley's products.
"We’re building and repositioning the brand," Copes said. "We want to be the most influential worldwide in that middleweight market, from 250cc to 750cc."
Ryan Hoffins, vice president of marketing and another former Harley employee, said the company hopes to establish relationships with 80 to 100 independent dealerships around the country by the end of 2016, and open five to eight corporate-owned dealerships in the states that allow them. Previously, the company had exported bikes through a small Minnesota-based distributor, who will no longer be involved after 2015.
The first corporate dealership will be located in the group's future offices in the first floor of the Mitchell Leather building in Milwaukee's 3rd Ward neighborhood. Copes said the 3rd Ward location represents a strategic effort to target new audiences that don't typically embrace motorcycles, such as millennials and women. With smaller, lighter bikes than many of the prevalent brands, Royal Enfield could have a wider appeal than what's on the market. The bikes also have a smaller price tag, at between $5,000 and $6,000, compared with Harley's Street 500, the Milwaukee manufacturer's only comparable bike, at almost $7,000.
"We see an opportunity for spouses of Harley riders, especially females who are used to riding on the back, to get their own bikes," Copes said. "We hear continuously that bikes in the market just aren’t conducive to women’s stature."
Hoffins said the Royal Enfield brand also could appeal to residents of large cities where it's expensive and inconvenient to own a car.
"We’ll offer an alternative to both big bikes and scooters," he said.
And while the Milwaukee location on the surface looks like a jab at Harley, Copes said it was primarily a decision based on talent, as Copes and several other hires were already based here.
By 2017, Royal Enfield plans to build its Milwaukee office to 25 employees. It currently employs 12. Copes said the company has no plans to bring any manufacturing to the U.S., but could foresee doing customization and configuration here in the future. "We won’t duplicate what they do in India," he said.
"There’s no way we could compete with their cost structure."
The company sells three models in the U.S. — the 535cc Continental GT, the 499cc Classic 500 and the 499cc Bullet.
Ugly bike. I could design, build and sell a far cooler bike at a fraction of the price.
They only have twelve employees here. I heard it said there is always room at the top, if you’re good enough.
Ex Harley execs seek to build line of royal Enfield cycles in Milwaukee.
FReep Mail me if you want on, or off, this Wisconsin interest ping list.
Seems an unliklely duo for the Harley stuff if that is what they are intending to compete with. The budda-budda "look at me" crowd is not interested.
Should just come out as a modern day American Triumph, not yet another noisy cruiser. Was interested in a RE way back when, luckily my interest was not matched by mechanical skill or financial.
Nuff said.
So it is marketed as a girls bike. Wonder if the market is big enough.
To each their own. It reminds me of old Triumphs.
RE is now an Indian company that bought the intellectual property of British RE and now manufactures all their bikes in India.
The only British thing about the RE is the name.
I’ll bet that Enfield would get you farther than that hardtail before it became too painful to ride.
When some jackass pulls dangerously out in front of you, that Enfield would stop in a safe distance. Bikes without front brakes, not.
One cylinder? Is this being marketed as a high-line Vespa motorscooter?
The Royal Enfield, during WW2, was the workhouse of the British military, as the Harley was the workhorse of the U.S. military.
Yes, they are large single cylinder bikes, and are not too bad riding, either.
No, they are not ‘vespas’. These are four-stroke engines, and being single cylinder set-ups, bring more gas mileage than another similar cc-sized twin engined bike.
Maintenance is a little easier, as well.
Harleys have become over-inflated in value, and over-elevated as a ‘status’ vehicle, as Indians once were, and Victories are, as well.
The RE has enough to ‘get itself out of trouble’, for those that remember that category of qualification.
I wish them luck.
Bring that on and you’ve got a deal.
Great, I love the Bullet
Also, HD 883s have been called girl's bikes for years but are still fun to ride if you're not planning on a coast to coast run.
At my age I'd be tickled as hell with a 350 or 500 cc Triumph except for the kick start requirement...does the current RE have electric start?
Enfield India (since 1949)
Main article: Royal Enfield (India)
Royal Enfield motorcycles had been sold in India since 1949. In 1965, the Indian government looked for a suitable motorcycle for its police and army, for use patrolling the country’s border. The Bullet was chosen as the most suitable bike for the job. The Indian government ordered 800 350-cc model Bullets, an enormous order for the time.[18] In 1955, the Redditch company joined Madras Motors in India in forming “Enfield India” to assemble, under licence, the 350 cc Royal Enfield Bullet motorcycle in Madras (now called Chennai). Under Indian law, Madras Motors owned the majority (over 50%) of shares in the company. In 1957 tooling equipment was sold to Enfield India so that they could manufacture components.
Royal Enfield India manufactures and sells in India, and also exports to Europe as well as America, South Africa and Australia. Recently Royal Enfield has undergone a major retooling particularly in the engine department going from carburated cast-iron engines to twin spark unit construction engines on all its models, with EFI available on their flagship 500 cc model. This retooling has sparked such an interest in these bikes that they have started double shifts at the plants.
In August 2015, Royal Enfield Motors announced it is establishing its North American headquarters and a dealership in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with the intention to offer three bikes, the Bullet 500, Classic 500 and Continental GT 535 Cafe Racer as they feel this engine size represents an underserved market. The dealership will be Royal Enfield’s first company-owned store in the U.S., according to Rod Copes, president of Royal Enfield North America. The company wants to establish about 100 dealerships in American cities starting with Milwaukee.
“I live here, so I am biased. But in my mind, Milwaukee is kind of the center of motorcycling in the United States,” said Copes, a former Harley-Davidson executive. “We view this as kind of our first flagship dealership,” he added.[19]
These are Hindu made rice rockets. Made in India.
I had one. The quality of the steel and the final assembly quality control was beyond bad. They’ll have to invest some money in quality control before their motorcycle can become mainstream.
ROTFLMAO! What are they smoking?
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