The Mahindra Group, who recently bought a stake in Kinetic, the Pune-based two-wheeler manufacturer has decided to restructure the two-wheeler business. M&M had acquired the Kinetic Group for a whooping Rs 118 crore in July 2008.

According to the sources, Kinetic scooters will still be manufactured, but rebranded as Mahindra-Kinetic from now on. Facing the axe are scooters such as Nova, 4S, Blaze, Kine; mopeds such as King100, v2, the iconic Luna; and motorcycles such as Stryker, Comet and the Kinetic Aquila.

The move is an outcome of market research conducted by the new management of the two-wheeler business, which suggested that the company would need to reinforce the Mahindra brand strongly if they want to establish the group in the competitive two wheelers space.

As part of the restructuring, the company is doing away with the Kinetic branding for new models being launched by the two-wheeler joint venture. At the time of announcing their partnership, the Mahindra group had said they would use a Mahindra Kinetic co-brand for all two wheelers to be sold by the joint venture.

M&M is not only gearing up to compete with current scooter market leader Honda Motorcycles and Scooter India but also Hero Honda and Bajaj, hinting introduction and fresh portfolio launches ahead of the festival season in the latter part of this year.