Hero Moto plans to set up mfg plants in Brazil, Argentina

Bogota: Eyeing aggressive expansion in Central and Latin America, India's largest two-wheeler maker Hero Moto Corp plans to set up manufacturing units in Brazil and Argentina, even as it expects upcoming plant in Colombia to help widen its reach in the region.

"We believe that the factory in Colombia will be a good hub for supply to other markets for us in Central and Latin America," Hero Moto Corp MD & CEO Pawan Munjal told PTI.

"We will get into manufacturing in Brazil. Argentina also requires us to manufacture locally, which is also on the cards. We would like to enter the Brazilian market along with the Rio Olympics in 2016," he added.

Hero MotoCorp launched six of its best-selling bikes here as part of its target to clock 1.2 million unit sales from global business by 2020.

The two-wheelers rolled out include the 100 cc bikes - Splendor iSmart, Eco Deluxe, and Passion-Pro; the 125 cc Glamour; the 150 cc Hunk and the 225 cc Karizma ZMR. The bikes will be sold in 120 outlets spread across the country.

This July, the company formed a wholly-owned subsidiary in Colombia and commenced construction of a state-of-the-art manufacturing plant in the country.

The project entails investment of USD 70 million in capital expenditure as well as working capital over a three-year period, he added.

"In the first phase we are going for manufacturing 75,000 to 80,000 units in annual capacity, going up to 1,50,000 units in next phase," Munjal said on the upcoming unit in Colombia.

With this, the New Delhi-headquartered Hero MotoCorp will be the first Indian two-wheeler company to have a manufacturing plant in Latin America. The plant in Colombia is expected to go on stream by the middle of 2015.

Munjal said the company is looking to establish manufacturing and assembly units in 50 countries worldwide as part of its global expansion plans.

By 2020, the company aims to be in over 50 countries with 20 plus assembly facilities globally.