Yamaha to set up plant near Chennai

Hiroyuki Suzuki, CEO and Managing Director, India Yamaha Motor Pvt. Ltd., at a press conference, in Chennai on Monday. Photo: Bijoy Ghosh

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Two-wheeler manufacturer Yamaha, on Monday, said that it would be setting up a factory in Tamil Nadu at an investment of Rs.1,500 crore, which would be made over five years. It also announced that the Yamaha range of scooters would hit the roads this Diwali.

The proposed facility, at an industrial park on the outskirts of Chennai, would have an annual capacity of four lakh units at the start of operations in January 2014. The capacity would be increased in stages to 1.8 million units annually by 2018.

Addressing presspersons, after the company entered into a memorandum of understanding with the State government, senior executives of India Yamaha Motor Pvt. Ltd., led by its CEO and Managing Director Hiroyuki Suzuki, said the Chennai factory would be the first in the Yamaha group to have a vendor park in its vicinity. This, according to a release, will “bring together the production operations of main external parts suppliers, thus enabling complete synchronisation of external supplier parts production as well.”

The decision on the new facility, Mr. Suzuki said, was “in line with the company's medium-term management plans of enhancing local production levels to meet the demand growth in emerging markets such as India and their export markets.”

Last year, the company, which now manufactures motorcycles in Surajpur, Uttar Pradesh, and Faridabad, Haryana, exported 1.9 lakh vehicles out of the total production of 5.2 lakh units.

Roy Kurian, National Business Head-Sales, said the Chennai plant would initially produce scooters. The company, however, would be making a foray into the scooter market with the vehicle manufactured at its factory in Surajpur, Uttar Pradesh. The scooters would be targeted at young women, he said.