Will start selling in 10 new mkts in LatAm, Africa by Mar:Hero

The country's largest two-wheeler maker Hero MotoCorp today said it will start selling its products in 8-10 new markets in Latin America and Africa by the end of March this year as it looks to increase exports.

"We are planning to launch our products in 8-10 new markets in Latin America and Africa by March. This is as per our plans to export one million units across the world by 2016-17," Hero MotoCorp (HMC) Senior Vice President (Marketing and Sales) Anil Dua told PTI.

At present, the company exports its products only to Colombia in Latin America.

Dua, however, declined to share details such as which are the markets or how many units the company plans to export.

According to sources, HMC has already started initial operations in some Latin American nations like Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, and is getting ready to start its business in four to five African markets.

"Hero has already started despatching its two-wheelers to three countries in Latin America. The first consignment to these markets was despatched just a few weeks back," a source said, adding HMC has also finalised distributors and channel partners in some markets in Africa.

Sources also said the company plans to set up assembly units in some of these markets once the volumes pick up.

The Latin American market is currently dominated by Japanese makers such as Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki and Kawasaki. Besides, there are also some Asian firms present from China and Taiwan.

HMC had announced its global brand launch in 2011 and had planned to expand its international business to 30 countries, spanning across Africa, Latin America, America and South-East Asia in a bid to garner 10% of its total sales from overseas operations in the following five-six years.

In September last year, the company had launched the Hero brand in its existing international markets such as Sri Lanka and Nepal.

According to Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) data, HMC's exports declined by 18.27% at 1,21,859 units during April-December period this fiscal.