Katsushi Inoue takes over as Honda Cars India head

Hiroyuki Shimizu will be new Senior Vice President & Director, Marketing & Sales

Honda Cars India Limited (HCIL), the fourth-largest passenger vehicle manufacturer in the country, on Monday announced Katsushi Inoue had been appointed its president and chief executive.

Inoue will take up his duties from April. Hiroyuki Shimizu will be the senior vice-president and director, marketing and sales. Yoshiyuki Matsumoto, managing officer, Honda Motor Company, who was the representative of development, purchasing and production in Asia and Oceania since April 2013, will move to Japan at the end of his tenure. He was based out of India. He will take over as the chief operating officer of automobile operations at Honda Motor. Sources said he could be elevated to director, with the title of senior managing officer and director, after approval at the general meeting of shareholders in June.

Inoue takes over from Hironori Kanayama who served since taking office in April 2012. Inoue has been linked to Honda Motor for over 29 years and has served as general manager in the marketing planning office in the Japan headquarters in his last assignment.

He has vast experience in the automobile industry, having worked with Honda ventures in different markets, across the globe including Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, UK, Poland and Germany.

Hiroyuki Shimizu takes over from the current senior vice-president and director, marketing and sales Shigeru Yamazaki, who was at this position since April 2012. Shimizu has been associated with Honda Motor Company for over 25 years and in his last assignment, he served as director and vice-president in Honda Automobile (Thailand) Company.

Shimizu started his professional career with the company in the year 1990 and has significant experience in product planning, marketing and sales. Yamazaki will now go to Japan and will be responsible for automobile operations business planning in Honda Motor Company.

Kanayama moves back to Japan as he retires after successfully completing his career in Honda. During the three years of Kanayama’s leadership in India, HCIL witnessed rapid growth in its business. It was in his tenure that Honda forayed into the diesel segment in India with the launch of its revolutionary 1.5 litre i-DTEC diesel engine and entered into many new segments in the market leading to increase in HCIL operating field from 10 per cent in 2012 to the current 51 per cent. Many successful products like Honda Amaze, Honda Mobilio and fourth-generation Honda City were launched in the Indian market during this period.

The company started assembly operations at its Tapukara Plant in Rajasthan and thus increased the production capacity to 2,40,000 units per annum between the two plants. HCIL also witnessed significant expansion in its dealer network from 135 facilities in 83 cities (March 2012) to 232 facilities in 152 cities (March 2015) by focusing on existing and newer Tier-III markets.