Yamaha Motor India MD resigns, Hiroaki Fujita to take over as chairman

Yamaha Motor Co (YMC), Japan, has announced the appointment of Hiroaki Fujita as the new chairman of Yamaha Motor Group companies in India including India Yamaha Motor (IYM), Yamaha Motor India Sales (YMIS) and Yamaha Motor Research & Development India (YMRI) with effect from January 1, 2015. Hiroaki Fujita takes over the position from the current chairman, Hiroyuki Suzuki. In addition, Fujita will hold the position of president and CEO of Yamaha Motor India Pvt. Ltd. (YMI).

Fujita has been associated with Yamaha for over 32 years. Prior to this position, he was executive general manager, Intelligent Machinery (IM) Operations, YMC and has also been an executive officer at YMC since 2011.

Speaking on his appointment, Hiroaki Fujita said, “I am very excited to take up the role of strategic decision-maker at Yamaha Motor India operations. My focus would be on ensuring the development of the best products and achieve synergies through excellent teamwork between Yamaha Motor Group companies in India. India is the most exciting and the fastest growing two-wheeler market in the world and hence, a key market for YMC. Also, Yamaha is positioned in the market as the most exciting brand and our sales have been continuously growing in high double digits. With such positive sentiments inside the company and outside in the market, I am looking forward to steer the company to greater heights in the future.”

Recently, YMC has created YMI as the regional headquarters and corporate control body of India business operations. The company is responsible for Corporate Strategy, Business Planning & Business Expansion, Quality Control & Compliance Assurance, and Regional Control of Yamaha India Business. IYM is the manufacturing company while YMIS & YMRI would continue to independently support IYM for sales & marketing and development of its products respectively.

IYM's manufacturing facilities comprise of two plants at Surajpur (Uttar Pradesh) and Faridabad (Haryana). The infrastructure at both the plants supports production of motorcycles and parts for the domestic as well as overseas markets.

IYM has a workforce of over 2,300 employees and a countrywide network of over 1200 customer touch-points including 400 dealers. Its current product portfolio includes YZF-R15 Version 2.0 (150cc), Fazer (153cc), Fazer Version 2.0 (149cc), FZ-S (153cc), FZ-S FI Version 2.0 (149 cc), FZ (153cc), FZ FI Version 2.0 (149 cc), SZ-S & SZ-RR (153cc), SZ – RR Version 2.0 (149 cc), SS125 (123cc), YBR125 (123cc), YBR110 (106cc), Crux (106cc) and scooters Ray (113cc), Ray Z (113cc) and Alpha (113 cc). Its import portfolio includes VMAX (1,679cc), YZF-R1 (998cc) and FZ1 (998cc).