Hero Honda sales up 17% in March

The country's largest two-wheeler maker, Hero Honda, today reported 17.35 per cent rise in sales at 4,14,638 units last month, the best-ever figure reported by the company for the month of March.

The company had sold 3,53,342 units during March last year, Hero Honda Motors (HHML) said in a statement.

HHML registered a cumulative sales of 46,00,130 units during 2009-10, against 37,22,000 units in the previous fiscal, up 23.59 per cent, it added.

The company had in February surpassed the target of selling 4 million units during the fiscal.

"FY10 was another remarkable year for Hero Honda. With sales of over 4.6 million units, Hero Honda has not only handsomely crossed the target sales for the year but also created a new sales record," HHML Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Pawan Munjal said.

The company expects to repeat the same good performance in 2010-11 as well while adopting a number of new strategic initiatives, he added.

"We will aggressively expand our presence across new rural, urban and export markets. We are also looking at setting up our fourth plant in the near future," Munjal said.

He added that the company will continue to work for bringing in more products to customers, combined with innovative sales and marketing programmes.

As part of its network expansion, the company's 'Touch Points' have crossed 4,200 outlets during the fiscal.

Hero Honda said that it "continues with its industry leadership as the world's largest manufacturer of two-wheelers as a single company for the ninth consecutive year".

During the last fiscal, the company had launched nine models across various segments, including the 'CD Dawn', 'CD Deluxe', 'Pleasure' and 'Karizma ZMR'.

Earlier this week, the company had announced a special silver jubilee dividend of 4,000 per cent of Rs 80 for every share of Rs 2 face value.