Hero MotoCorp inaugurates new plant in Colombia

Hero MotoCorp has inaugurated a new manufacturing facility at Villa Rica, in Colombia. This is the company's fifth plant and its first plant outside India.

The Villa Rica plant was completed in a little over nine months since construction began. It will act as a hub for selling Hero vehicles to Andean countries. It can also be used as a base for shipping to North American markets such as Mexico and the US.

The plant is spread over an area of 17 acres (68,000 square metres) and is located at the Parque Sur free trade zone at Villa Rica in the state of Cauca - about 500 km south-west of Bogota. It will have an initial production capacity of 80,000 units per annum. Hero plans to expand its capacity to 1,50,000 units per annum, in the next phase. The plant has been built at a project cost of US$ 70 million of which, US$ 38 million has been utilised in CAPEX and rest will be used as working capital over the next few years. The plant is expected to provide employment to around 2,200 people in the area.

The new plant will manufacture ten products from HMCL’s range of two-wheelers including the Dash scooter.

With the inauguration of the new plant, Hero MotoCorp has become the first Indian two-wheeler manufacturer to set-up a manufacturing plant in Latin America.

Hero MotoCorp currently sells its products in 24 countries across the world including Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Egypt and Turkey in Asia; Peru, Ecuador and Colombia in South America; Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama and Costa Rica in Central America; Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda in East Africa; Ethiopia in South Africa; and Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola in West Africa.

In partnership with its local distributors, Hero MotoCorp has also established assembly units in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda in East Africa. The company is also in the process of setting up a manufacturing facility in Bangladesh.