The story of Siddhartha Lal needs to be told -- again and again. He spearheaded his family's motorcycle business into a new dawn. Royal Enfield, which had been pummelled by other two-wheeler companies with fuel-efficient products, created a new category of riders who prioritise performance over everything else.
Sid Lal was handed the responsibility of Royal Enfield's CEO in the year 2000. In 2006, he became the CEO and MD of Eicher Motors. He shut 13 of the family's 15 businesses and focussed all his energies to reviving the Enfield brand.
In the year 2000, Chairman Vikram Lal had advised the management to shut Royal Enfield. However, Sid Lal stepped up and asked for some time in order to revive the business. He drove the motorcycle for months and learnt about the likes and dislikes of riders. He improved the motorcycle as per the priorities of the youths of the country. He made Bullet accessible. Within two years, the sales of the brand saw a massive uptick.
By the year 2014, Enfield's revenue contributed 80 percent of the revenue of the Eicher Motors Limited Group.
Last year, the group's profit was Rs 714 crore in the quarter ending in December 2022. In the last financial year, the company sold 8,34,895 motorcycles, its highest ever overall sales.
One of the most famous decisions of Sid Lal was when he sold his tractor business to Tractors and Farm Equipment Ltd in 2005. Tractor was the first business Eicher had successfully executed.
To further rationalise the group's finances. He sold 46 percent of his truck business to Swedish giant Volvo Group in 2008.
He goes by the Less is More philosophy. This is why he keeps the prices of his motorcycles very competitive.
Despite high demand for the motorcycles, he never went for opportunistic pricing. His philosophy is to increase margins by selling more motorcycles. Not only Bullet 350 and Classic 350, his company's twin cylinder engines are quite a rage -- both in India and in the West.
Siddhartha Vikram Lal is the son of Vikram Lal. He attended the Doon School. He also studied in Delhi University's St Stephen's College for a degree in economics. He did his postgraduate diploma in mechanical engineering from Cranfield University. He did his master's in auto engineering from the University of Leeds in the UK.
He is currently MD and CEO of the Eicher Group. He had quit as the CEO of Royal Enfield.
He has been operating from the UK since 2015. In 2021, he had hit a controversy due to his annual package of Rs 21.12 crore. The nomination and remuneration committee of Eicher Motors later tweaked his salary package to Rs 12 crore. He earned Rs 7.38 crore in the financial year 2021.
He also gets a fully furnished residence, two company cars and other benefits.
As per Forbes, the net worth of Vikram Lal's family was 6.6 billion in 2022, which is Rs 54,000 crore.
Sid Lal's net worth is more than Rs 37,000 crore.
The market cap of the company is over Rs 80,000 crore.
