Hero Cycles Inaugurates Premium Bicycle Production Unit

Premium Bicycle market is one of the fastest growing markets with an annual increment of 40 percent. To target the segment, world's largest bicycle manufacturer, Hero cycles inaugurated a new all aluminium bicycle manufacturing unit at their Ghaziabad based manufacturing plant. In a press release on the August 1, 2013, Hero Cycles Ltd. claimed to touch another landmark in their history by clocking their highest monthly production ever of 5.09 lakh bicycles. This was an effort to meet their sales target of 6 million units for this year.

Mr. Pankaj Munjal, Co-Chairman and Managing Director of Hero Cycles Ltd said while releasing these figures,“With the increased production numbers to meet the increased demand, Hero Cycles has now improved its market share to 43% amongst the organized sector bicycle manufacturers and 39% including the unorganized makers,”. “This is a part of Hero Cycle’s program of doubling its sales to 10 million by 2018, the first phase target of which is 6 million in 2013 and is set to be achieved,” he added.

The new plant might also a part of their strategy to achieve the sales target. The new unit will produce two new launched premium cycles- 'Astra' and 'Orion', under their premium brand-'Octane'. The bicycles have been launched with a minimum price tag of Rs. 7,000. This new production unit will increase the local participation in production of premium aluminium bikes, which are more lighter and efficient. Before this, the company was importing frames for its high end brands like- 'Urban Trail' and 'Sprint'.

The capacity of this new unit is to produce one lakh cycles per annum. The company is also planning to localize the production of their key components like internal gear hubs, electric drive units and front forks. Currently, these parts are being imported for manufacturing purposes.