A war of words appears to have erupted between Japan's Honda Motor and India's Munjal family, who control the country's biggest two-wheeler maker Hero MotoCorp. After Honda announced that it will surge ahead of Hero Moto by 2015 to become India's top two-wheeler maker, Pawan Munjal dismissed the Japanese company's assertion. Munjals and Honda parted ways from their erstwhile JV Hero Honda in 2013.
"I am dead sure of sustaining our leadership. Nobody can take away our leadership. It is no joke," Munjal told TOI when asked about the recent statement made by Shinji Aoyama, Honda's global operating officer for motorcycle business.
Honda has been growing swiftly following the split with Hero through its fully-owned subsidiary Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI), and the company has also been gaining volumes in the motorcycle market beyond its stronghold of scooters. It has swiftly edged past TVS and Bajaj Auto to become the country's second-biggest two-wheeler maker and has said that market leadership is not far if industry sales continue to move in slow zone.
"Under the current scenario in India, I believe it will not be 2020, but even 2016 or 2015 by when we will attain number one position here," Aoyama had said in March. Incidentally, Aoyama was in-charge of HMSI in an earlier stint and at that time had to coordinate operations with the Munjals as part of Honda's representative.
This is not the first time the two have been at loggerheads with each other and there had been incidents of friction even when they were partners in Hero Honda.
Munjal said Hero is geared up for the challenge from Honda and is working aggressively in the area of R&D, which was the key function where Honda contributed to the JV. As it ties up with international companies for the same, Hero is also increasing the headcount at its internal R&D set-up.
"There are several projects spanning across existing and new platforms that are currently underway at our R&D centres both at Gurgaon and Dharuhera in Haryana. We have more than 400 engineers at our R&D division, out of which an overwhelming majority are young and highly-skilled personnel. They are all brimming with ideas and I have given them a carte-blanche to think out-of-the-box and be innovative. We are also adding more engineers," Munjal said.
The company is also setting up an integrated R&D centre at Kukas in Rajasthan, which is expected to commence work "very soon", he added.
However, just as the company talks about maintaining leadership, Hero Moto has seen volumes go down at a time when HMSI gained in numbers and market share. Hero Moto's sales fell 2% last fiscal at 59.12 lakh units, while HMSI gained 31% in the same year at 26 lakh units. And in the first quarter of this fiscal, sales of Hero Moto fell by 4% to 15.27 lakh units, while HMSI saw volumes move up 14% to 7.1 lakh units. However, the gap between the two companies is still very large in terms of overall volumes.
"I am dead sure of sustaining our leadership. Nobody can take away our leadership. It is no joke," Munjal told TOI when asked about the recent statement made by Shinji Aoyama, Honda's global operating officer for motorcycle business.
Honda has been growing swiftly following the split with Hero through its fully-owned subsidiary Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI), and the company has also been gaining volumes in the motorcycle market beyond its stronghold of scooters. It has swiftly edged past TVS and Bajaj Auto to become the country's second-biggest two-wheeler maker and has said that market leadership is not far if industry sales continue to move in slow zone.
"Under the current scenario in India, I believe it will not be 2020, but even 2016 or 2015 by when we will attain number one position here," Aoyama had said in March. Incidentally, Aoyama was in-charge of HMSI in an earlier stint and at that time had to coordinate operations with the Munjals as part of Honda's representative.
This is not the first time the two have been at loggerheads with each other and there had been incidents of friction even when they were partners in Hero Honda.
Munjal said Hero is geared up for the challenge from Honda and is working aggressively in the area of R&D, which was the key function where Honda contributed to the JV. As it ties up with international companies for the same, Hero is also increasing the headcount at its internal R&D set-up.
"There are several projects spanning across existing and new platforms that are currently underway at our R&D centres both at Gurgaon and Dharuhera in Haryana. We have more than 400 engineers at our R&D division, out of which an overwhelming majority are young and highly-skilled personnel. They are all brimming with ideas and I have given them a carte-blanche to think out-of-the-box and be innovative. We are also adding more engineers," Munjal said.
The company is also setting up an integrated R&D centre at Kukas in Rajasthan, which is expected to commence work "very soon", he added.
However, just as the company talks about maintaining leadership, Hero Moto has seen volumes go down at a time when HMSI gained in numbers and market share. Hero Moto's sales fell 2% last fiscal at 59.12 lakh units, while HMSI gained 31% in the same year at 26 lakh units. And in the first quarter of this fiscal, sales of Hero Moto fell by 4% to 15.27 lakh units, while HMSI saw volumes move up 14% to 7.1 lakh units. However, the gap between the two companies is still very large in terms of overall volumes.
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