The maker of
Royal Enfield motorcycles
has incorporated a unit in the Netherlands with plans for a
warehouse
in the EU, after
Brexit
made it more difficult to move parts to mainland Europe. Eicher Motors set up the Dutch arm to reduce its dependency on the UK and is in talks to establish a warehouse, potentially in Germany or France, to speed up the supply of non-motorcycle products like spare parts and branded merchandise.
“Brexit has made it challenging to move materials to and from the UK to Europe,” Arun Gopal, Royal Enfield’s international head, said. “Also, the UK is not geographically close to some parts of Europe, so we needed a warehouse that could service that region more effectively.”
Founded in the UK at the start of the last century and with motorcycles that were used in both World Wars, the company imports bikes and other parts into Europe from India and sells them through local distributors. The business is growing quickly in the EU and the new warehouse will cut lead times to two weeks from 90 days currently, he added.