DHAKA: India’s largest two-wheeler manufacturer, Hero MotoCorp will begin producing vehicles in Bangladesh by 2017. The construction work of the plant is in full swing and expected to go operational by early next year. Hero MotoCorp has tied up with Nitol-Niloy Group to set up the factory which is spread over 12.35-acre land at Noapara of Jessore with a target to produce 150 motorcycles a day.
With Bangladesh’s annual market of half a million motorcycles, the company will expand to produce 250 motorcycles per day. Hero MotoCorp will initially invest $29 million in its second overseas manufacturing plant. The first being in Colombia which went operational in 2015.
Commenting on the venture, Vikram S Kasbekar, head of operations and supply chain of the Hero MotoCorp Ltd said that with Hero MotoCorp motorcycles are being exported to 32 countries.
The company secured the position of the world’s largest two-wheeler manufacturer last year with the production of 6.64 million motorcycles. In India, the company holds 52.4 percent market share in the two-wheeler segment. Back in the 1980s, Hero MotorCorp’s annual production was 1 million and now it has touched nearly 67 million units for the last three decades.
The company’s Gurgaon factory in Haryana produces more than 7,000 units in a single day. Currently, the Hero exports its motorcycles from India to Bangladesh and these include models such as Xtreme Sports, Xtreme, Hunk, Glamour, Super Splendor, different models of Splendor, HF Dawn, HF Deluxe and its scooter Pleasure.
