Hero Motors Company (HMC) Group has firmed up its plans to set up a new international headquarters, Hero International (HIT), in London as part of a push towards expanding Hero Cycles' overseas business and strengthening its global presence.
The company aimed at bringing HMC's European businesses under one umbrella and giving its electric bike business a major boost worldwide.
The new HQ will unify HMC-owned European businesses, including HNF in Germany and Insync Bikes in UK, as part of a long-term vision to grab an increasing share in the lucrative e-bike market growing at an exponential pace in Europe.
HIT will play a strategic role in streamlining and bringing together different strategic strengths of the group, including its European research, development and design centres, backed up with a scaling up of the company's manufacturing capability in India.
HMC's Global R&D is currently centralised in Berlin with HNF, which is a premium engineering unit. HIT in London will provide unified and strategic leadership to the company in Europe across finance, strategy and supply chain operations.
The international plans are backed up by back-end support with the upcoming E-Cycles Valley project in Punjab, which will add a capacity of four million bikes and e-bikes across India and Sri Lanka, from where the group avails zero duty exports to the European Union (EU). The Cycle Valley is expected to take the Hero Group's manufacturing capacity to 10 million bikes every year.
Hero Cycles, part of India's HMC Group, has a manufacturing capacity of six million bicycles per year and a network of plants located in Ludhiana (Punjab), Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh) and Bihta (Bihar).
It also has a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Sri Lanka as well as a design centre in the UK. It also owns UK-based Avocet Sports, Germany-based HNF, and Firefox Bikes in India.
While Avocet Sports was Hero Cycles' first overseas acquisition and marked the company's entry into the European bicycle market, HNF marked the company's foray into the e-bikes segment.