With the recent notifications by the government to improve the safety measures on road, market for branded ISI Helmets is getting mature. This has led to increase in the sales figure of Asia's largest Helmet manufacturer, Steelbird Helmets. It has recorded a growth of 80% in the helmets category. Last year the sales figure were over 5 lakh helmets and this year the first quarter figures have shot up to 9 lakh helmets.
"The estimated demand for helmets is around 100 million pieces per annum and the good news is that the gap is being filled by those players who are conforming to the BIS norms, since after the enforcement of compulsory certification, manufacturing of any kind of two-wheeler helmet not conforming to IS 4151:2015 will be an offence.
Also, recently, the transport commissioners of Tamil Nadu & Madhya Pradesh had instructed the two-wheeler manufacturers and dealerships to make helmets mandatory on the purchase of new two wheelers for the rider as well as the pillion. While our sales are soaring up, we are investing a lot on R&D to develop new products to meet the BIS norms and customer requirements covering the entire spectrum," said Rajeev Kapur, MD, Steelbird Helmets.
Being the brand leader of the helmet industry, Steelbird is currently enjoying approx 38 (%) market share in helmet industry with 3 state of art plants and a manufacturing capacity of 22,000 helmets a day as of now. Moreover, the production capacity is now being increased and will be able to manufacture 44,500 helmets per day. Looking at the growing demand Steelbird plans to come up with the biggest helmet plant of the world in an endeavour to help do away with existing substandard products.
"Steelbird is constantly upgrading and in sync with the international standard and design as we have our designing and R&D team both in Italy and India. We are proud to add a whole new model range and add variants to existing series therefore expanding the option horizon for the riders. While committing to meet the protection needs we will also be laying emphasis on style and comfort. Our motive is to cover complete business pyramid which means mass customer to premium customer and the pricing will vary from Rs. 899/- to highest range which is Rs. 12,999/-," added Rajeev Kapur.
According to the Motor Vehicle Act, while riding two wheelers wearing a helmet is mandatory Pan India but most of the riders do not wear helmets and still the sales are going high. Once the rules get stricter and riders start wearing the head gear, automatically the demand will increase drastically, Kapur concluded.
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