HMSI pledges financial support to dealers amid lockdown

Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) on Thursday said it has lined up a slew of measures, including buyback of unsold BS 4 stock, in order to supportits sales partners during the unprecedented nationwide lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The two-wheeler major said it plans to buy back the BS 4 inventory lying unsold with few dealers, majorly in Delhi-NCR area,and provide advanced payments of incentives and reimbursements across the three functions -- sales, service and spare parts.

The company will also entirely bear the interest cost of BS 6 inventory (physical plus transit) with the dealers for the 21 days of the lockdown, it added.

"The support package will effectively provide immediate liquidity to our dealer partners and we are confident that it will comprehensively ease their business continuity anxiety and improve cash flow," HMSIDirector – Sales & Marketing Yadvinder Singh Guleria said in a statement.

Providing yet another major support, Honda shall also bear the interest cost of the BS 6 vehicles inventory at all its dealers for the entire 21-day lockdown period, he added.

The company's support comes at a time when the unprecedented nationwide lockdown has severely impacted the dealer partners who were already under immense pressure due to the 16-month-longindustry slowdown.

HMSI has already extended the timeline by two more months to customerswhose free service ad warranty was scheduled during the lockdown period.

The company said it has alsoreleased payments of around ₹1,700 crore to its suppliers, dealers and service providers on time.

The initiatives have led to easing ofliquidity crunch for the company's business partners amid Covid-19 lockdown situation, it added.

HMSI currently has over 6,000 salesand service outlets across the country, including more than 1,000 dealerships.