Hero Cycles Limited, based in Ludhiana, Punjab, is an Indian company that manufactures bicycles and bicycle related products.[6] Pankaj M Munjal[7] is the chairman and managing director of Hero Cycles.
Hero Cycles was established in 1956 in Ludhiana, Punjab, manufacturing bicycle components. Today, Hero Cycles is one of the world's largest manufacturers of bicycles, producing 18390 cycles per day.[8][9] Hero Cycles Ltd. is part of Hero Motors Company.[10]
The company acts in part as a white label manufacturer to various brands, in addition to selling motorcycles under the Hero and UT (formerly Urbantrail) brands.[13][14][15][16][17] Hero Cycles bought the Firefox bicycle brand in 2015.[18][19][20][21]
In 2015, Hero Cycles Lt. bought a majority stake in Avocet Sports Ltd., a UK distributor of bicycles, e-bikes, bicycle parts, and accessories.[22][23][24] Insync Bikes brand was launched by Avocet in November 2018.[25] In 2019, Hero bought a majority stake in German e-bike manufacturer HNF-Nicolai.[26][27][28] In 2016, Hero bought 60% of Sri Lankan bicycle manufacturer BSH Ventures.[29][30][31][32]
In 1986, the Guinness World Records called Hero Cycles the largest bicycle manufacturer in the world.[33] for being the single largest producer of bicycles.
Hero Cycles is part of Hero Motors Company (HMC).[34]
The HMC family[35][36] is made up of organizations such as Hero Cycles Ltd., Avocet Sports (UK),[37] BSH (Sri Lanka), Firefox Bikes (not to be confused with the browser by Mozilla),[38] Spur,[39] HGD,[40] Hero Motors,[41] Munjal Hospitality,[42][43] Munjal Kiriu,[44] ZF Hero[45] and OMA.[46]
