Return of the Raleigh

When cycling was the main mode of commuting for many, a brand that rode high among cyclists was Raleigh. Now, the 125-year-old Raleigh-England has come back to India.

Ludhiana-based Naren International, which entered into a licence agreement in January this year, has launched nearly 12 models of Raleigh mountain bikes. It plans to come out with many more, including the Raleigh-USA range, and take the total number of models to 26 by the end of this year.

“Even a kid wants a trendy bike now. Biking clubs are also becoming popular in every city. So we decided to launch the mountain bikes first,” says Rajesh Kalra, Managing Director of Naren International, who was here on Tuesday for the launch of Raleigh bikes. The brand is very popular in several pockets in the country, including the Coimbatore region, he says.

Naren International has launched the Raleigh bikes in the northern States and is now introducing it in the southern States. It plans to have 125-150 dealers in the south and register $4 million turnover a year from 2013. The focus for the next six to nine months is to build the range, he says. Naren plans to set up a manufacturing and assembling unit in Ludhiana by next year with an investment of $5 million. It has entered into an understanding with a Taiwan company for the knowhow, he says.