Further price increases at Yamaha
While the month of April and its rays of sun tended to make bikers smile again, the new wave of price increases announced by Yamaha Motor France reminds us that the spring showers soon dampened enthusiasm…
Omnipresent, the economic crisis haunted the winter of the French with great reinforcements of redundancies and a vision of the future turning alternately from "gloomy" to "apocalyptic". Severely affected, motorcycle manufacturers have seen their sales volumes fall catastrophically, at the same time plunging a large part of the profession into concern….
Yielding to the blows of the general recession – which logically lead to a drop in sales – and the reversal of the euro / yen parity, the four Japanese manufacturers have in turn revised their price lists upwards since last fall. A phenomenon to which customers are not really used and which could encourage the development of European competition (read our).
So, while Kawasaki and Suzuki are trying to minimize their price adjustments through good promotions in the network, Honda France has suddenly increased its prices by 7% on average (read) and Yamaha has just renewed (read) "a re-indexation of our prices of around 3.5% on average"since April 1.
An advertisement in the form of a Scottish shower for followers of the brand with three tuning forks, once again number one in French sales in 125 and in addition to 125 cc for the month of March (read).
However, if the collapse of the French motorcycle market does indeed seem to be slowing down with the return of sunny days (-5.8% in March against -27% in January and February), it is however too early to claim victory: Yamaha Motor France is therefore forced to increase its prices following the drop in productivity of its factories and the euro / yen gap.
"The global recession severely affected the industrial chain by reducing production volumes and the factories of the Yamaha group reduced their production rates, which had a direct impact on productivity.", explains the sales management of the French subsidiary, specifying that"at the same time, the euro / yen gap has widened: Yamaha Motor France therefore buys its products more expensive and must, unfortunately, pass this increase on to the public selling price of its motorcycles if we want to maintain a dynamic economic in our sector of activity".
Because it is obvious that the French importer is not delighted with this worrying situation: solidly established in France – in particular thanks to the "success story" of the X-Max 125 and T-Max 500 -, the brand with three tuning forks was consolidating until then its domination over its direct competitors. In the first quarter of 2009, Yamaha even slightly strengthened its market share in 125 (21.19% against 20.75%) thanks to the X-Max and Majesty scooters and the indebted YBR – which has also been successful. an impressive trip to Latin America thanks to our two young children PE and Beru (read our) !
It is therefore not surprising that these three models only experience a measured increase compared to certain models in the range, such as the WR 125 which takes 10.8% (see our table below): the X-Max increased to € 4,099 (+ 2.5% compared to December 2008), the Majesty to € 3,199 (+ 1.6%) and the YBR to € 2,259 (+ 2.7%).
On the larger-displacement side, Yamaha Motor France may also fear a comeback from the competition, since its best-sellers such as the T-Max 500, the FZ6 and the XJ6 see their prices rise respectively to € 9,599 (+2 , 7%), € 7,299 (+ 4.3%) and € 6,349 (+ 3.3%).
Finally, fans of tourism and sport are also likely to look gray: the XJR 1300 climbs to € 9,889 (+ 5.2%), the FJR 1300 AS to € 17,999 (+ 8.1%), while the all-new YZF R1 is charging more for its technology Cross Plane from MotoGP: the beautiful will now be exchanged for € 15,749, an increase of 3% just a few months after its release (read our).
Aware of "the effort required of its customers", Yamaha nevertheless wishes to reassure the troops: savings are not on the agenda, since"Yamaha is committed in return to maintain a high level of quality and technology throughout its range, requirements which are and must remain the strengths of the brand", undertakes the Japanese firm.
To date, however, the French importer is unable to predict whether this round of increases will be the last of the year, "because we are unfortunately subject to the vagaries of monetary parity", told us Yamaha Motor France…
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