Hero MotoCorp on Thursday said it will roll out 12 new two-wheeler models over the next seven months as it gears to regain the over 50 per cent market share it used to hold.
In the next few years, it will also launch fully indigenously developed products, including off-the-road motorcycles. Hero feels that the market for such bikes is growing; its Impulse is positioned as a commuter and off-the-road motorcycle.
The company announced plans to increase its footprint to 50 countries from around 10 now, with 20 manufacturing facilities and assembly plants and sell 100 million two-wheelers cumulatively by 2020.
By then, it hopes to achieve a turnover of Rs 60,000 crore from around Rs 24,000 crore now.
Hero’s market share, after its separation from Honda nearly three years back, has fallen to around 43 per cent. The Hero group, which separated from Honda after a 27-year partnership, plans to set up a plant in Mexico to cater to overseas markets. It inaugurated an assembly plant in Kenya last month.
Hero MotoCorp, which started exporting products under the Hero brand name recently, expects to get 10 per cent of its revenues from exports by 2017.
“In the short term, we will launch Brand Hero in 10 more international markets by the end of this year (fiscal) and by next year, we will have six assembly facilities spread across three continents (Africa, Americas and Asia),” Pawan Munjal, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Hero MotoCorp, told newspersons here.
“Come what may, we have to go for our goals, including growing our market share back to 50 per cent-plus in future,” he said.
To achieve profitability, Munjal said Hero MotoCorp has launched project ‘Leap 20’ (leadership in profitability by 2020). It entails bringing in high levels of innovation across its supply chain, and partnering with suppliers to drive improvements in cost structure and raising the bar on product quality and reliability.
The company, which invested $25 million for a 49.2 per cent stake in US-based Erik Buell Racing, is working on newer technologies. It also has a tie up with Austria based-AVL Engineering for engine research and development Recently, it tested three engines here.
“The three engines that we test-fired recently will be the best in the two-wheeler history,” Munjal said. The new technology-based two-wheelers will start rolling out from next year, he added.
The company rolled out the 50 millionth two-wheeler (motorcycle) from its plant at Gurgaon.