Hero to set up manufacturing plants in Brazil, Argentina

Hero MotoCorp is eyeing aggressive expansion in Central and Latin America and after the Colombia plant becomes operational, the company will be looking at other Latin American countries.

“We believe the factory in Colombia will be a good hub to supply to other markets for us in Central and Latin America,” Hero MotoCorp 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 has already launched six of its bestselling bikes in Colombia as part of its target to clock 1.2 million unit sales from global business by 2020. The bikes include 100cc bikes Splendor iSmart, Eco Deluxe, Passion Pro; 125cc Glamour, 150cc Hunk and the 225cc Karizma ZMR.

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

With this plant, Hero MotoCorp will become the first Indian two wheeler company to have a manufacturing plant in Latin America. By 2020, the company aims to be in over 50 countries with 20 plus assembly facilities globally.