Hero MotoCorp, the country's largest two-wheeler maker, will be parting with the badge of its ex-Joint Venture (JV) ally Honda. Beginning this month, the company will officially remove the Honda name from all its products and the move is two years ahead of the original schedule.
According to Press Trust of India (PTI), Anil Dua, Senior Vice President (VP), Marketing and Sales, said, “The acceptance of our new identity and the market response that we have received on our three new Hero branded models-Impulse, Maestro and Ignitor make us confident to go ahead. Our entire range of products would have moved to the Hero brand within this month. Now almost all of the models have moved to the Hero brand and only CD Dawn and CD Deluxe are left.”
The company parted ways after 26 years of successful Joint Venture (JV) with the Japanese auto maker Honda in August 2012 and the announcement came in London. According to the parting agreement, the Indian bike maker can use the Honda suffix in its products till 2014 but the company is focussed to end the proceedings by September 2012.
Reportedly, Hero MotoCorp started the removal of Honda name from its biggest selling Splendour motorcycle in April 2012. At present, the company markets 18 products in the Indian market including three models under the 'Hero MotoCorp' brand name. The remaining 15 models still carry the Honda suffix in their names.
Upbeat with the popularity and demand of the new scooter Maestro, which was introduced as a Hero MotoCorp product, the company is planning to increase its production output of scooters to 60,000 units per month. Additionally, Hero MotoCorp will also increase its manufacturing yield of 125 cc motorcycles to 75,000 units per month.
Speaking on the 125cc bike segment, Dua said, “With Ignitor coming in, we have expanded the portfolio in this segment to four models. Also, we are increasing the production capacity of this segment to 75,000 units a month and we may even increase it further.”
Expressing his views on the company's hike in production of scooters in the country, Dua also said, “The Maestro, which is targeted to young men, has done well. It has complemented our other scooter Pleasure which is targeted to women. Therefore, we are increasing scooter capacity to 60,000 units a month.”
Reportedly, the Hero MotoCorp operates at a monthly yield of 30,000 scooters and the company recorded a surge of 51.62 per cent in the sales of scooters that stood at 42,836 units in August 2012 as compared to the same period last year. During the first five months of the ongoing financial year, Hero MotoCorp scooter sales climbed by 18.27 per cent at 1,87,846 units as compared to the 1,58,825 units sold in the same period last year.
