Recently, the Austrian motorbike company, KTM won the Dakar Rally for the 14th consecutive time. Along with, it finished second in the Moto3 2014 championship race. All this clearly shows that breaking records isn’t difficult for the company. For the first time in its history, the KTM’s Austrian plant made 1 lakh units in 2014. Another fact states that KTM has closed the year 2014 at a record-breaking 1,58,760 units sold, beating its closest competitor BMW, and becoming the largest European brand in the world.
With these figures, the company reported a 20.7 per cent increase in its revenue and an increase of 28.2 per cent in its annual sales. These statistics also include the Husqvarna’s contribution, the former parent company. The auto maker chalked up the revenues at around $967.6 million. In the first half of the year, the two companies were giving each other stiff competition, with KTM selling 70,469 units and BMW selling 70, 978 units. The majority of the success KTM achieved was in the second half of the year, when it overtook the BMW.
Another reason for the success of KTM last year was its association with the Indian two-wheeler giant, Bajaj Auto. The partnership in the past few years has given the company a much-needed boost in the Asian market, thanks to Bajaj’s experience in developing and manufacturing inexpensive motorcycles. While most of the KTM's bikes are produced in Austria, the smaller capacity Duke and RC are made in Bajaj’s Chakan factory in Pune. The global motorcycle market is an extremely competitive one, and KTM will be trying its best to hold on the momentum it attained last year. The company is expecting to increase its annual sales figure to 2,50,000 units by the onset of 2015. Industry experts said that looking at the way things are going for KTM, it isn’t a difficult target to achieve.
