Hero MotoCorp Ltd, the new avatar of Hero Honda Motors Ltd after the Hero group and Honda Motor Company called off their 26-year-long association, plans to set up two new plants – one in the South and the other in the West – and a parts distribution centre in Rajasthan.
Mr Pawan Munjal, Managing Director and CEO, Hero MotoCorp, told journalists here that the company was in discussions with a State Government in the South and would shortly announce the location of the new plant.
He declined to name the State with which the company was negotiating. The plant would have an initial capacity of 750,000 units a year. The company's total capacity at its three plants – two in Haryana and one in Uttarakhand – is about 6.15 million units.
The plant in the western region would follow subsequently and would also be used for Hero MotoCorp's global foray.
The company plans to begin exporting its products in the next two quarters itself, under its own brand name.
Perfect 10
At a high-decibel re-branding exercise at the O2 arena, a massive concert hall that can seat up to 20,000, Mr Munjal also outlined the company's plans – for a perfect 10 in the next five to six years – annual sales of 10 million units and annual turnover of $10 billion (about Rs 45,000 crore) with overseas business contributing about 10 per cent to total volume sales.
In 2010-11, the company sold 5,402,444 units and reported a turnover of Rs 19,245 crore. It exported about 1.5 lakh units during the year, to Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Columbia.
Celebrities such as actor Shahrukh Khan, former tennis champion Boris Becker, F1 driver David Coulthard, cricketer Irfan Pathan and pop star Akon participated in the event in which over 1,000 of the company's dealers were also present.
Mr Munjal said the company would over the next five years invest more than what it had in the last 27 years of its existence. So far the company would have invested about Rs 4,500 crore, he told a team of Indian journalists that was on a visit to London organised by the company.