Leading Indian motorcycle
manufacturer Hero MotoCorp Ltd. (HMCL) set a historic milestone with its
‘first’ global manufacturing facility, at Villa Rica, in Colombia going
operational, on September 8, 2015.
Juan Manuel Santos, President of Colombia and
Pawan Munjal, Chairman, MD and CEO of Hero MotoCorp Ltd. inaugurated the plant
today at a ceremony attended by ministers from the government of Colombia,
government officials, senior bureaucrats and Hero MotoCorp associates.
Completed in a little over
nine months since construction began, the Colombia plant is Hero’s 5th
manufacturing facility, in addition to four assembly plants in India. This
plant will act as a hub for selling to the Andean countries. It can also be a
strategic base for shipping to North American markets such as Mexico and the US
Spread over 17 acres (68,000
sq meters) of land at the Parque Sur free trade zone at Villa Rica in the state
of Cauca - about 500 km south-west of Bogota, the plant will have an initial
production capacity of 80,000 units per annum. This capacity will be expanded to
produce 150,000 units per annum, in the next phase. The plant has been built at
a project cost of US$ 70 million of which US$ 38 million has been utilised in
capex and rest will be used as working capital over the next few years.
The new plant will manufacture
HMCL’s best-selling and globally successful range of motorcycles and scooters.
The plant will manufacture ten products from the HMCL portfolio, including the
all-new scooter Dash which was also unveiled here today as part of its global
launch.
With the commencement of
operations at the manufacturing plant in Colombia, the New Delhi-headquartered
HeroMotoCorp has become the first Indian two-wheeler manufacturer to set-up a
manufacturing plant in Latin America.
Currently Hero sells its range
of two-wheelers through 160 outlets spread across 133 cities and towns in the
country. Hero has rapidly augmented its network by adding 69 outlets in 2015
alone. Some of the bestselling Hero products include – the 100cc Splendor
iSmart, Eco Deluxe, and Passion-Pro; the 125cc Glamour; the 150cc Thriller and
the 225c Karizma ZMR. Hero is also the only two-wheeler manufacturer to offer a
4 year warranty on all its models.
Hero MotoCorp currently sells
its products in 24 countries across the world - Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh,
Egypt and Turkey in Asia; Peru, Ecuador and Colombia in South America;
Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama and Costa Rica in Central
America; Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda in East Africa; Ethiopia in
South Africa; and Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Democratic Republic of Congo and
Angola in West Africa.
In partnership with its local
distributors, HMCL has also established assembly units in Kenya, Tanzania and
Uganda in East Africa. With another overseas manufacturing plant coming up in
Bangladesh, the company is fast building up a global manufacturing base to
cater to growing demand for its products in international markets.
Source: Hero MotoCorp