Category: Uncategorized

Hero Cycles is the largest cycle producer in the world, and is a clear leader in terms of standards in the overall domestic market. Selling over five lakh units a month, Hero Cycles, plays a dominant role in the bicycle industry in India who have recently acquired Avocet, Firefox, and BSH. With its base, Hero Cycles has managed to achieve a consistent growth through its strong focus on increasing its volumes. At a press conference here today, Hero Cycles discussed its journey towards becoming a highly diversified conglomerate and announced its plans to keep widening its business ventures beyond automobiles.
“This is a proud moment for us and we hope that this shift in image will help us in achieving our goals for the coming year. Hero is not just about cycles and automobiles. Today, we are diversifying into different business interests and hope to continue our winning run in every field. Through Hero Motors Company, we envelop all our diverse business ventures under one roof. We are the first ever company to achieve a sale of over 6 lakh units in a month in the history of India’s cycle industry and we are hopeful to strive in the same manner in all our endeavours”, says Pankaj Munjal, Chairman and Managing Director, Hero Cycles Ltd. The company has also opened the Global Design Centre (GDC) in Manchester, UK to develop next generation bikes based on the latest technology. This design centre will help Hero Motors Company produce technology and design catering to the differentiated products to suit the needs of different European markets. In the years to come, Hero Motors Company envisions a mobile and empowered world powered by two wheelers. This new identity of the company reflects their commitment towards providing world class mobility solutions with a renewed focus on expanding the company’s footprint in the global arena in the years to come.After excelling in the arena of mobility, automotive, and engineering Hero Motors Company has also branched out to acquire and venture into lifestyle, and hospitality. This diversification shifts the focus of Hero Cycles to Hero Commercial Towers in Gurgaon as a remarkable destination recognized for setting new standards in Commercial / Retail spaces of India. Their luxury lifestyle brand, Oma aims to bring global luxury in the lifestyle segment to India at affordable prices.

Hero Cycles Pvt. Ltd, the world’s largest bicycle manufacturer, has announced its new IPL partnership as the Principal Sponsor of Kings XI Punjab, the home team of the company which is headquartered in Ludhiana. The major announcement comes ahead of the tenth season of one of the world’s most watched cricketing events that features leading players from across the world alongside local Indian talent
Kings XI Punjab will be led into the tenth season by Australian batting sensation Glenn Maxwell while Indian legend Virender Sehwag is coaching the squad. The partnership as the main sponsor of the popular IPL franchise reinforces Hero Cycles’ commitment to supporting sporting activities in India and engaging with youth in a wider way. “We are very happy to announce this association as this marks our coming together with our home IPL team which we wholeheartedly support. It is a pleasure to support Kings XI Punjab in their pursuit for IPL glory. IPL is without doubt India’s most popular sporting event, and is watched by millions of people not just in India butt across the globe. Through this partnership our objective is to reach out to the millions of cricket fans, particularly the youth,” says Mr. Pankaj Munjal, Chairman & Managing Director, Hero Cycles Pvt Ltd. The team boasts of some of the world’s most talented players including South African batting mainstay Hashim Amla; England ODI and T20 captain Eoin Morgan; West Indies all rounder Darren Sammy; and Australian batsmen Shaun Marsh and Marcus Stoinis, among others. The leading Indian players on the Kings XI squad include Wriddhiman Saha, Axar Patel, Varun Aaron, Manan Wohra, and Mohit Sharma, among others. Hero Cycles has been one of India’s most trusted and dependable mass brands over decades, and has also been supporting sporting events in India. Hero Cycles was associated with the Royal Challengers Bangalore team in the last season. In recent years, Hero Cycles is working aggressively to transform itself from the market leader in India to a company that enjoys global dominance. The initiatives have included steps to diversify its product range, introduce a series of lifestyle products, youth centric bicycles and global acquisitions. In 2012, the company introduced a premium range of Urban Trail bicycles specially for the urban lifestyle segment. The acquisition of Firefox Bikes in 2015 marked another strategic move at the transition. Hero Cycles has recently opened a global research centre in Manchester to undertake aggressive research on improving bicycle engineering and design as part of its efforts to expand presence across the world.

In a bid to become a more gender equitable organization, the world’s leading bicycle manufacturer Hero Cycles has for the first time hired as many as 90 female employees to operations at its manufacturing plant in Ludhiana. This is the first time, women have been recruited to work at the Ludhiana plant, which remains Hero Cycles’ largest manufacturing hub, producing almost 20,000 bicycles every day.The women have been hired and trained to work across multiple dimensions including mainstream assembly operations, precision monitoring and design.
“We are proud to announce that women have marked a splendid entry into our workforce at the Ludhiana plant. To begin with, we have hired 90 women employees and we are sure they will bring about a paradigm shift in our plant’s operation and working procedures. We have hired women not just for frontal office jobs but also for mainstream operations positions at the plant. Assembly operations are a manpower intensive work that require high degree of precision, alacrity and eye for detail. The ladies have picked up those skills very fast, and are already manning the operations,” says Mr. Pankaj Munjal, Chairman and Managing Director of Hero Cycles.At the plant, the line output as per industrial engineering norms has already been achieved within short time of their joining the workforce.Hero Cycles is the world’s largest manufacturer of bicycles, and its Ludhiana plant remains its leading manufacturing facility. Hero Cycles has other manufacturing units at Ghaziabad and Bihta in Bihar.“Women across the country are breaking new glass ceilings every day. Yet, there continue to be areas of work that do not hire women due to certain unwritten rules. We believe it is a myth that women cannot work effectively in manpower intensive jobs such as decal operations and assembly. In fact, women add greater diversity to the work force and bring in additional approaches of problem solving,” adds Mr. Munjal.Having turned their Ludhiana plant pink, Hero Cycles is now looking to hire more women in multiple dimensions across the organization.

In its drive to promote healthy living and to collaborate with the government in this endeavour, Hero Cycles gave away 50 women’s and 50 men’s roadster bicycles. This was to support a rally that saw the 100-strong team ride from Bikaner to Jodhpur, a distance of about 250 km. The rally was flagged off Shri Arjun Meghwal, Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs, Government of India.
In his address to the gathering, Shri Arjun Meghwal said: “It is commendable that you have all undertaken this historic ride to prove to the state of Rajasthan, in fact to the whole country, that the bicycle is truly the best form of transport. It is the cleanest-energy vehicle that will help reduce our per capita energy consumption and vehicular emissions. In a country that is now the third-most obese in the world and is known as the diabetes capital, bicycling will tackle many lifestyle diseases. We are grateful for Hero Cycles’ participation and their involvement in advocating for cleaner air and better health. We will definitely look into their request for putting the lowest GST slab of 5% on basic bicycles, so that the number of cycles bought and used goes up.” As of now, the de-growing bicycle industry is sustainability and employment challenges, in addition to adding to the disease burden of India. There is today, declining urban, owing to unsupportive cycling infrastructure; and stagnating rural demand, due to the rising prices and hence the unaffordability factor. The bicycle industry has been working with the government to promote riding as an eco-friendly, convenient transportation system. “We are delighted that the government has shown through this rally its commitment to the value of sustainable, active transport. Bicycles rid the environment of particulate pollution as well as noise pollution; they have fitness and health benefits; and they aid in decongestion of our cities. A bicycle takes up just 1/10 the space of a car, so it avoids traffic chaos. If utilized by all, it will free up roads and parking spaces so we get more space in our already overcrowded cities and towns. We urge the government to put in place the lowest GST of 5% on bicycles, to bring down cost and encourage more and more people to take to their use. This will not only increase demand, but also improve tax collection,” said Shri Pankaj Munjal, CMD,, Hero Cycles. India’s bicycle ownership stands at 11 crores, with majority of these being used by people in the lower income groups for commuting. In addition, the entire industry employs a 1 million workforce. The industry, with Hero Cycles taking the lead, looks forward to using the bicycle as a tool for empowerment of the girl child. With this mobility young girls can travel to their schools and colleges with ease and speed.

Hero Cycles, one of the world’s biggest manufacturers of bicycles, today opened its Global Design Center in Manchester, established at an investment of 2 million pounds (Rs 169.59 million) with an objective of bringing together the best designers and innovators in the industry to develop the next generation of bike design and technology. Mr Pankaj Munjal, Chairman and Managing Director of Hero Cycles, formally cut the ribbon at the Hero Cycles Global Design Centre (GDC) at One Central Park, Manchester – a short distance from the National Velodrome in Manchester, the home of British cycling.
The facility marks a major leap for the Indian bicycle major that is working aggressively to conquer new shores and establish a stronghold in different parts of the world. Notably, Hero Cycles is working to increase its revenue share from overseas from around 20 per cent currently to 60 per cent by 2018.The Global Design Center aims to rationalize the company’s design functions, bringing together in one place its design, product development, innovation and market research departments. The GDC will employ 25 of the industry’s best designers and marketers from across Europe. The team will work across several bike segments including mountain bikes, road bikes, ladies and kids, as well as cutting edge electric bikes. The decision to choose Manchester, which has the highest student population of any city in Europe, was taken in October 2016. A number of other cities across Europe were considered for the design centre, including London and cycle-hubs in Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Berlin, but investment in the UK’s Northern Powerhouse came, according to Mr Munjal, thanks to Manchester’s “strong affinity with cycling culture” and its “undoubted design and engineering heritage”. As well as full time staff, the centre will have space for university students and will also take on apprentices under the British government’s Apprenticeship Scheme. “As we focus on global expansion plans, we need to harness global talent and have a design center that is located closer to some of our targeted markets. With major expansion plans in Europe, this Design Centre will help us produce technology and design to cater to differentiated products to suit the needs of different European markets. Our strategy is two-fold: to develop British brands in the UK, build them and export them across the Europe, Africa and India and secondly, to increase the value of our Indian-based bike brands.” says Mr Pankaj Munjal, Chairman and Managing Director, Hero Cycles. The bikes designed at the GDC will be manufactured at Hero’s plant in Sri Lanka and exported to Europe, Africa and India.Hero already has business partnerships in the North of the UK, having acquired a majority stake in Avocet Sports, a Manchester-based bike and accessories distributor, in August 2015 – their first partnership outside India.Avocet, which designs and develops bike brands for independent bike dealer market, including mountain bikes, kids and ladies bikes, electric bikes and tandems, will also benefit from the Global Design Centre.