Chandigarh: Hero Cycles Limited today decried rumours that it was moving its manufacturing facilities outside Punjab and made it clear that Punjab was its ‘matrabhoomi as well as karmabhoomi’ even as it announced it was set to increase its production capacity in the State with the establishment of a new plant in Ludhiana soon.
Pradesh Congress President Partap Singh Bajwa had recently claimed that several companies including Hero Cycles and Khanna Paper Mills were in the process of shifting their manufacturing facilities outside Punjab. Another company – Khanna Paper Mills, Amritsar which the PCC president had claimed was shifting to Gujarat has also derided this claim. In a statement its management said the company was not shifting to Gujarat or any other part of the country and that in case it expanded its operations Punjab would be its first choice for the same.
Meanwhile in a communication to its customers, suppliers, employees and other stake holders, a copy of which was forwarded to the Punjab government, Hero Cycles Limited said it was committed to Punjab and would shortly increase its production with a new plant dedicated to premium category bicycles near Ludhiana.
The company said it was also focussing on several initiatives in Punjab including establishment of a vocational training centre in Hero Cycles facility, investment in newer machines and infrastructure, investment in software and IT infrastructure and hiring plans to increase employee headcount to support its increased capacity.
The communication went on to give credit to chief minister Parkash Singh Badal for pledging his commitment to the bicycle industry. It said the chief minister along with Hero Cycles had presented the case for tax reforms and technological development in the bicycle industry to the Prime Minister. It said the company’s co chairman and Managing Director Pankaj Munjal had been working very closely with the State government for addressing the issues of the bicycle industry on a national level in close coordination with State finance minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa.
Hero Cycles founder Chairman OP Munjal made the company’s commitment to Punjab further clear in the communication by stating “Punjab is the matrabhumi and karmabhumi of Hero Cycles and it will always remain so in future. It is the friendliest state for any bicycle company to work in with ample support from the respective Government departments. We hereby declare our commitment to build Hero Cycles even stronger within Punjab and reaffirm our aggressive growth plans to be centrally driven from Ludhiana.”
The company also stated it had no plans for any dilution in the shares of the company, or movement of the manufacturing facilities outside of the state of Punjab. “We have recently acquired land in the state of Bihar for capacity expansion, which is not the shifting of production rather addition of capacity for the local market in Eastern India”, it said adding a similar expansion was also underway in Europe.
The company also expressed faith in the State government leadership by stating “We extend our full support to the vision of the Government of Punjab, under the Leadership of Chief Minister Sardar Prakash Singh Badal and Deputy Chief Minister Sardar Sukhbir Singh Badal”. It also said Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal had always been a mentor for the company and was instrumental for its expansion in 2008. It said the new industrial policy had instilled a new energy in the industry sector in Punjab and that Khanna Papers was already contemplating expansion plans in Punjab.