Never shying away from bringing new automobile brands to Goa, the Quadros Group has brought to bike-lovers a brand new showroom of American bike brand - ‘UM Motorcycles’ - in Taleigao. The Goan Everyday caught up with the chairman and managing director of the group, Evencio Quadros.
The Goan: You have recently started the showroom. How has the experience been with the brand UM Motorcycles in Goa?
Evencio Quadros: The experience has been very good. We have already delivered 6 bikes to test the market and have received very good feedback from those buyers. By the middle of this month, we are expecting to deliver 12 more bikes. Overall, we have 60 bookings. This is when the showroom has not even been formally inaugurated. We started in January this year and are going to have inauguration only next month.
TG: UM Motorcycles is the third cruiser bike brand in Goa, as we already have Royal Enfield and Harley-Davidson. Could you tell us about your brand positioning?
EQ: The brand UM Motorcycles will create an altogether different segment. We are aimed at bikers in the age group of early 30s to early 40s, who earlier had a bike when they were in their 20s, and would now like to come back to motorcycling.
Therefore, the cruise and the sports bikes we have will give you more relaxed feel. What we are trying to say is that this is not a mass brand. Rather than selling en masse, we are trying to cultivate a motorcycling culture by having a UM bikers club. We will also be having a café inside the showroom, where UM bikers can come, talk to each other and chill out.
We are doing all of this, while keeping the price very affordable. So, ‘Renegade Commando’ is priced at Rs 1.98 lakh on-road, while ‘Renegade Sports’ is priced at Rs 1.87 lakh.
TG: How are ‘Renegade Commando’ and ‘Renegade Sports’ different from each other?
EQ: Well, both these bikes are powered by the same 280cc liquid cooled engine. The technology is entirely American, as these bikes are also used by US military. The difference is in the look and the kind of feel they will give to you, when you take them for a ride. ‘Renegade Commando’ has matte military green colour, while ‘Renegade Sports’ has more contemporary colour and design scheme.
We have a strong feeling that once we start selling these bikes full-flow, a lot of customers will customise their bike the way they want.
Due to that, the company will be offering a lot of accessories in the showroom itself.
TG: Service is often an issue in Goa. Often, bike dealers don’t have spare parts, which make it very tough for customers. How are you going to deal with this issue?
EQ: We are a dealer of five two-wheeler brands in Goa - Suzuki, Vespa, Yamaha, Mahindra and now UM Motorcycles. We have always emphasised on giving good service to our customers. Besides, customers have seen that Quadros Group means good service.
For UM Motorcycles brand as well, our whole attention will be on service. We know that the customer of this brand is a very knowledgeable one. We will ensure that our service standards meet his requirements.
TG: I always wanted to ask you that no one in Goa has brought so many auto brands to the state as you have done. What is the reason behind this?
EQ: I am not a conservative businessman. I think one needs to be innovative. We were the first to bring so many brands to Goa like Vespa, Mahindra, Suzuki, Renault and now UM Motorcycles. Besides, for UM Motorcycles, the concept and its strategy and segment itself is so unique that it will be the first time that Goa will see something like this.
TG: As of now, there is only one showroom of UM Motorcycles in Goa. How do we see it growing?
EQ: We are the only exclusive UM Motorcycles dealer in Goa. As of now, we have a showroom in Taleigao, but if South Goa needs one, we will open a showroom there as well. In fact, next UM Motorcycles’s showroom will be in Margao.
TG: Will Quadros Group bring new auto brands to Goa in future?
EQ: Yes, we will continue bringing new brands for Goan auto-lovers. We will even bring new international brands to the state.
TG: How do you see motorcycling trends changing in Goa?
EQ: I think bikers in Goa are beginning to follow international trends. More important than anything else, they want to buy a motorcycle, which is different from what others have. Earlier, everyone had the same scooter. That’s clearly not the case now. Like I said, customers, who will buy UM Motorcycles’s bikes, are going to buy different accessories to give a unique look and feel to their bikes.
And, the fact that these bikes are priced at less than Rs 2 lakh shows that most customers will belong to middle-income bracket. This shows that bike customisation is no longer limited to the niche segment of customers, who buy really expensive motorcycles.
