Hero Cycles, the world’s largest bicycle manufacturer by volume, is continuing to pedal into new territories.

In its third major acquisition in six months, the company on Wednesday announced that it had purchased 60 per cent equity stake in Sri Lanka’s bicycle manufacturer BSH Ventures.

This comes within months of the company’s significant acquisitions in UK-based Avocet Sports and Firefox Bikes.

However, Hero Cycles has not disclosed its investments in the deals involved.

“This is a major strategic acquisition for us as we work to expand our presence globally — both in terms of sales as well as presence. Hero will further invest in ramping up the plant capacity in Sri Lanka to half a million units per year with clear plans laid out to fuel the domestic as well as ever-growing global demand,” said Pankaj Munjal, CMD, Hero Cycles.

The move will strengthen the company’s manufacturing presence in the subcontinent and help Hero Cycles raise its share in the international sales of Indian bicycle companies to close to 30 per cent, it said.

While Avocet Sports was Hero Cycles’ first overseas acquisition and marked the company’s entry into the European mass bicycle market, the acquisition of Firefox Bikes was a strategic move to cement its position in the fast-growing premium bicycling segment in India.

Hero has been clocking 11 per cent growth in the Indian market. With Firefox’s acquisition, it commands the dominant position in the double-digit growth premium segment, while also ruling the mass segment with over 45 per cent market share, the company said. It has an overall market share of about 41 per cent.

Hero Cycles posted a turnover of around ₹3,000 crore during 2014-15, producing around 5.5 million cycles. With the recent acquisitions, it aims at a turnover of ₹8,000 crore by 2018.

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