Hero may be losing ground to Honda in its smallest displacement categories in its home market of India, but the Indian brand is poised for good growth abroad. Already linked to a number of projects with Erik Buell Racing, Hero MotoCorp is said to be also eyeing the African and Latin American markets for its next international business moves.
Hoping to enter a few markets in Africa and Latin America by the end of the company’s fiscal year, Hero MotoCorp is cagey on specifics regarding its overall international plan. However, in September of this year, Hero’s CEO Pawan Munjal stated that the company would start assembly plants in Kenya and Nigeria, tipping those two countries as the starting points for the Indian company’s African market invasion.
As for Latin America, Colombian market is favored to be the first vector, with Munjal also tipping that Hero MotoCorp would establish an assembly operation in the South America country, and then presumably work its way farther north. The position also easily positions the Indian company for expansion south into lucrative markets like Brazil, Argentina, and Peru.
Globalizing at a rapid rate, Hero MotoCorp clearly aims to give Honda and similar brands a run for their money in the world marketplace. Already accustomed to making small-displacement motorcycles for reasonable prices, Hero has been making partnerships and joint-ventures with a number of companies, like Erik Buell Racing, to create larger-displacement motorcycles as well.
While the growth for the industry still firmly resides in Southeast Asia (and Asia as a whole), and to a lesser extent South America as well, it seems entirely likely that Hero’s bikes could make their way to the US, though they may not carry the Hero MotoCorp logo on them — in a similar way that Bajaj is making inroads to the US and European markets with the KTM 125 Duke, KTM 200 Duke, and KTM 390 Duke motorcycles.
What will be interesting to see in the western markets is when the same bikes are offered with a different company name on the side. That is something to chew on for today.
Source: Business Standard Motoring
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