Annual General Meeting

Chairman's speech, Hero Motocorp Ltd. 2012

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We launched our first bike under the Hero brand name; till date, three new models have been launched. The Company's entire portfolio of products will get re-branded by September 2012, well before the June 2014 deadline set for ourselves.

In its solo flight, Hero has overcome the high-base effect of the previous year and weathered the country's ongoing challenging business environment. It was a year in which interest rates peaked, inflation remained stubbornly high, the rupee weakened and consumer demand petered out. Even so, nearly six-and-a-quarter million customers remained undeterred and reposed their faith in Brand Hero.

It was purely this faith of our customers, which enabled us to increase our market share and outperform the industry. Well, it wasn't just our customers who demonstrated their unrelenting faith in us. Our eyes and ears in the market – our extensive dealer network – also showcased their unflinching support. In fact, we began the year with over 4,700 touchpoints and gradually spread across the country to end the year with over 5,100 touch-points.

This strong endorsement from our customers and channel partners is what encouraged us to try and replicate the Hero success story overseas, especially in markets similar to ours. Brand Hero is set to capture the nation's heart in the same manner as Hero Honda did for as long as two-and-a-half decades.

We are now going through a very exciting and dynamic period, where skills, technologies and scales are getting built and developed for this decade, and the next.