Classic Legends to ramp up for cult brands Jawa, BSA in 12-18 months

Jawa is being made in Pithampur which is the erstwhile MTWL facility. “Classic Legends has nothing to do with MTWL’s brands including Peugeot scooter,” said Anupam Thareja, co-founder, Classic Legends. “The design, engineering, sales and distribution for the Jawa brand is being done by Classic Legends whereas the supply chain management and contract manufacturing is being done by the Mahindra Group,” said Thareja. 

“Their purchasing power with the Indian vendor is the biggest advantage of having Mahindra on board. We will ramp up this facility with demand.” Classic Legends — a 60:40 partnership between Anand Mahindra and Jawa brand owner Boman Irani along with Phi Capital’s Anupam Thareja — is scaling up its delivery and network in India for the Jawa brand even as it readies for a UK/Europe and North American launch of the other iconic bike brand in its kitty — the BSA. Retro motorcycle brand Jawa, which was relaunched just over a month ago, has already sold out for the year in terms of bookings, and now, said Thareja, the focus is on delivering the motorcycles and expanding the network to over a 100 by February 2019. Meanwhile, in the next 12-18 months, Classic Legends will announce its plans with British brand BSA which will be “designed and engineered in the UK and sold primarily in UK, Europe, and North America”.

For now, Classic Legends is focused on its India plan with Jawa and its global plan with BSA even though Thareja says the products are good enough to be marketed and sold interchangeably. “Jawa was made with Indian market and customers in mind and so Jawa strategy is for India whereas our BSA strategy is for the world with higher engine displacement products,” added Thareja.

“BSA is a beloved British brand and will be designed and engineered in the UK with manufacturing and supply chains that are global. We will keep that in mind when we make the product which is 12-18 months away,” he said. As for the Yezdi brand, also owned by Boman Irani, “we have access to that brand and depending on how the market behaves we will look at that brand but the plan right now is Jawa first and BSA second in the next 12-18 months,” he said. Jawa bikes will be for sale from March 2019

“We have sold out for a year so have announced the closure of bookings and my first job is to deliver these bookings,” said Thareja. Jawa, he said, could be used to feed other Asian markets also but only after feeding India demand first. Jawa, he said, will need a lifestyle infrastructure around it including riding clubs, rides, and adventure. “We need to create a lifestyle umbrella around it to create a pull for a brand like this, maybe even try to own some subculture like music,” said Thareja. Classic Legends is also expanding its network which currently has 5 outlets in NCR, 3 in Bengaluru, 2 in Pune and will soon add 2 more in Bengaluru, 5 in Chennai and 1 in Puducherry.