Piyush Tyagi, a veteran in the automotive industry with 25 years of experience, speaks to The Goan and shares his insights into the business he does from his two Yamaha showrooms and gives us some idea into what are the most popular products among clients
BHARATI PAWASKAR
It’s exciting to ride their stylish, sporty bikes, superbikes and scooters. They not only offer an riding experience to men on their two superbike models - YZF R1 and MT 09 but also have something sleek for the ladies - Alpha, Fascino and Ray ZR for which the booking starts with just Rs 3777. “There are Ganesh Chaturthi special offers too,” states Piyush Tyagi, Yamaha dealer in Goa. Tyagi who runs Parkar Auto Link, an authorised Yamaha showroom at Taleigao Borbhat in Caranzalem, also owns another Yamaha showroom in Pune. The combined sales of these two Yamaha showrooms in 2017-18 was little less than 3000, he boasts, adding, “The Pune showroom sold 1600 bikes while the Goa one did a business in 1300 pieces. We have, so far, 3000 happy customers in Pune and 2200 in Goa, since inception.”
With attached service centre, the showroom which kick started in April 2016 at Borbhat in Taleigao-Caranzalem area deals models such as YZF R15 V3 Moto GP Edition, YZF R3, FAZER25, FZ25, YZF R15 VER 3.0, YZF R15s, FAZER-FI, FZS-FI, FZ-FI, SZ-RR VER 2.0, SALUTO and SALUTO RX – most of which are popular with most of their clientele.
“We believe in establishing a long lasting relationship with our clients and are committed in offering after-sales services and repair works. Since our location is situated in a prime location, with the Shankar temple as our landmark, it makes it very accessible to locals,” says Tyagi whose prime customers include those with ‘Rent a bike’ business.
The season will begin at Tarkar Auto Link from this month as Tyagi admits, “While the monsoons are a little sluggish, our main sales begin from September onwards till April when we get single clients buying 4-5 bikes at a time. For family use Yamaha’s Fascino 113 cc model sells like hot cakes. We have it available all the time, only specific colours, if demanded, may take a week for us to procure. In bikes section, today’s youth are crazy for FZ R1 5 / V.3 version which is the latest for this year and we have so far eight bookings for it. There are 3-4 models in this with double disc/single disc and double colour/single colour options. It takes a month for the delivery of this model after booking and the down payment is done. While the lowest priced bike is Saluto RX, there are models that cost in lakhs too, and the top model in superbikes may go still higher.”
The two-wheeler enthusiasts have a wide range of choices at Parkar Auto Link with new as well as already popular models are available at the showroom which has a well-trained and experienced sales staff.
“Our employees are well-equipped with knowledge too and can handle all sorts of queries that a customer may have. They go out of their way to find something that would match perfectly with our client’s requirement,” assures Tyagi who apart from being a dealer in motorcycles, also is a spare part dealer and offers repairs and services too.
The Tyagis are into the auto industry for the past 25 years. Beginning with a dealership in Hero Honda they opened their first showroom in Satara in Maharashtra, then expanded to Chiplun.
“In Pune we have Yamaha showroom that’s been running for the past four years. In Goa our presence is for less than three years with two showrooms, one in Taleigao and the other in Mandrem which we started last year. The response is very good here, we are planning to expand to coastal areas where we have witnessed that those in taxi business tend to buy more bikes in a single time purchase,” briefs Tyagi.
Currently there are four main dealers in Yamaha in Goa, two in the North and two in the South. Yamaha bike showrooms in top cities like Ahmedabad, Bengalure, Chennai, Gurgaon, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Noida, Patna and Pune are more. While Chennai has the biggest number of showrooms 42, followed by Bangalore (36) and Pune (32) and Delhi (32). Hyderabad (27), Mumbai (22), Ahmedabad (19) while Kolkata and Lucknow has 14 each.
Yamaha Motor made its initial foray into India in 1985 as a joint-venture. In August 2001, it became a 100 % subsidiary of Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd, Japan (YMC). In 2008, Mitsui & Co Ltd. entered into an agreement with YMC to become a joint-investor in India Yamaha Motor Private Limited (IYM).
Yamaha organises events such as Miss Diva Contest, Moto GP Rush for R-Series Contest, Yamaha Family Safety Programme, Yamaha Children Safety Programme and Free Service Camp. In August 2018 India Yamaha Motor Pvt Ltd developed its new brand campaign ‘The Call of the Blue’ in order to draw a parallel to its product planning, marketing and customer engagement strategies with the brand’s global image of ‘excitement, stylish and sporty’. This initiative will comprise of the entire spectrum of Yamaha’s business in India and will be graphically represented with ‘Yamaha Racing Blue’ colour in the background.
The campaign will also offer multiple engagement platforms with an aim to intensely involve every Yamaha owner of India with the brand’s core identity, thus propagating the brand’s thrill and excitement. The campaign is aimed to build up the exhilaration of racing as it introduces YZF-R15 Version 3.0 (155 CC) Moto GP Limited Edition and Yamaha FZS-FI (149 CC) with rear disc brake in 2 new colours.
