Hero MotoCorp Expanding to Africa and Latin America

Hero MotoCorp, the largest two-wheeler manufacturer of the country, has announced to start to sell its products in 8-10 new markets in Latin America and Africa by March, 2013. This is to increase its export share in global market. "We are planning to launch our products in 8-10 new markets in Latin America and Africa by March. This is as per our plans to export one million units across the world by 2016-17," Hero MotoCorp (HMC) Senior Vice President (Marketing and Sales) Anil Dua told PTI.

Hero MotoCorp is exporting its products to Columbia already. Mr. Dua declined to share the details of the markets or quantity, which the company is palnning to export. We already share that Hero MotoCorp has started initial operations in some Latin American nations like Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, and is getting ready to start its business in four to five African markets.

The Latin American market is currently dominated by Japanese makers such as Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki and Kawasaki bikes. Besides, there are also some Chinese firms active in the entry-level segments. Hero MotoCorp had announced its global brand launch in 2011 in London and had announced to expand its international business to 30 countries, spanning across Africa, Latin America, America and South-East Asia in a bid to garner 10 per cent of its total sales from overseas operations in the following five-six years.

In September last year, the company had launched the Hero brand in its existing international markets such as Sri Lanka and Nepal. According to Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) data, HMC's exports declined by 18.27 per cent at 1,21,859 units during April-December period this fiscal. However, Hero's total domestic sales in current fiscal have come down by 1.99 per cent at 44,24,371 units.

"With robust sales since festive period and highest ever monthly sales in January, we are moving up and the fourth quarter also looks good. Our attempt is to be in the positive this fiscal," Dua said. The company is expecting better sales during 2013-14 on the basis of low sales in this fiscal and 7-8 new launches, including new models, variants and refreshes, he added.

Dua also said the company is expanding the production capacities of its scooters and 125 cc segment motorcycles, in which it witnessed 33 per cent and 36 per cent growth in last month, respectively. "We are increasing the monthly scooter capacity to 60,000 units from 40,000 units earlier. The capacity of 125 cc bikes is also enhanced to around 70,000 units a month from 60,000 earlier," he added.