Hero has record yearINDIAN giant Hero MotorCorp, the largest PTW manufacturer in the world by unit volume, says its sales grew by 6.2 percent in their latest financial year (April 2014 - March 2015) compared to their 2013/2014 year.
It sold 6,631,826 two-wheeler units, finishing the 12 months with 531,750 unit sales in March’15 (up from 524,028 units in March 2014).
In other news, March saw HMC-MM Auto Ltd., the joint venture between Hero MotoCorp Ltd. and Milan (Italy)-based Magneti Marelli, inaugurate its first autonomous ‘Production and Development Centre’ near New Delhi.The new centre will serve as a production facility and innovation hub to develop new-generation fuelling systems for HMCL two-wheelers. With the commencement of operations at the Development Centre, HMCL is set to become India’s first two-wheeler manufacturer to have its own EFI Product-line", according to the company.
In fact, it has been quite a few months, indeed years, for Hero - with multiple new facility initiatives in India and international strategic partnerships, including in Turkey, high profile sponsorships (Tiger Woods no less), and an announcement at the 'Milan Show' in November last year that the company intends to set up in Europe and start selling to Mediterranean markets later this year.
However, one important strategic partnership that was theoretically designed to play a huge role in giving Hero the horsepower to create a dealer network and sales in North America and Europe, and ultimately allowing them to enter the large displacement and performance markets, has just "gone south" on them.
Their 2013 acquisition of a 49.2 percent stake in Erik Buell's East Troy, Wisconsin EBR set-up, replete with European office headed up by ex Zero and Triumph man Edwin Belonje, filed for bankruptcy protection in mid-April.
It would appear that the $25m that Hero gave Buell for their non-controlling near half ownership wasn't nearly enough to allow the company to realise the ambitions of its well received 1190cc Rotax engined project (and other plans), and that Hero haven't been minded to add to the funding to secure their existing investment.
Unless Hero has a "cunning plan" in-play, the decision to cut their losses appears strange - Erik Buell and the resources that EBR was slated to develop for Hero in North America and Europe were highly strategic, and included development of new models, right through the displacement band, and new technologies, including electric hybrid powered motorcycles.
Speaking two weeks before the closure of EBR became public, Hero MotorCorp Vice-Chairman, Managing Director and CEO Pawan Munjal said that "FY’15 was a year of milestones at Hero MotoCorp – in terms of our sales performance, expansion of our global footprint, product innovation and customer engagement. Our record sales performance during the fiscal is reflective of all these efforts.
"In FY ’15, the industry continued to remain sluggish due to the overall market sentiments and the slowing rural economy. Even in such a challenging market environment, we managed to buck the trend and registered healthy growth, further consolidating our leadership. The journey from here promises to get better and [even more] exciting".
