World’s largest bicycle maker rides into Manchester
Hero Cycles hopes £2m design centre will benefit from Team GB’s Olympic glory
January 27, 2017 by: Andy Bounds in Manchester
The world’s largest bicycle manufacturer by volume has set up in Manchester, opening a £2m design centre in the home of British Cycling.
Hero Cycles, which builds one in 20 of the world’s bicycles and is based in the north Indian city of Ludhiana, chose the northern English city over some of the world’s most bike-friendly cities — Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Berlin.
Hero also plans to open a European factory, with Manchester as the most likely destination. The R&D centre is close to Manchester velodrome, the base of British Cycling, and Hero hopes that the high-end bikes it designs there will be associated with Team GB’s Olympic success.
Pankaj Munjal, chairman and managing director, said Manchester also had a history of innovation, from computers to the graphene molecule, and a large student population. Hero already has a majority stake in Avocet, a Manchester bike designer and distributor that once employed 850 in its factories around the UK.
Mr Munjal said the prospect of the UK leaving the EU did not worry him and he had decided to make the investment in October.
https://www.ft.com/content/a8862f02-e487-11e6-8405-9e5580d6e5fb
I expect he's hoping his future bikes can be made of Graphene.
Hero Cycles hopes £2m design centre will benefit from Team GB’s Olympic glory
January 27, 2017 by: Andy Bounds in Manchester
The world’s largest bicycle manufacturer by volume has set up in Manchester, opening a £2m design centre in the home of British Cycling.
Hero Cycles, which builds one in 20 of the world’s bicycles and is based in the north Indian city of Ludhiana, chose the northern English city over some of the world’s most bike-friendly cities — Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Berlin.
Hero also plans to open a European factory, with Manchester as the most likely destination. The R&D centre is close to Manchester velodrome, the base of British Cycling, and Hero hopes that the high-end bikes it designs there will be associated with Team GB’s Olympic success.
Pankaj Munjal, chairman and managing director, said Manchester also had a history of innovation, from computers to the graphene molecule, and a large student population. Hero already has a majority stake in Avocet, a Manchester bike designer and distributor that once employed 850 in its factories around the UK.
Mr Munjal said the prospect of the UK leaving the EU did not worry him and he had decided to make the investment in October.
https://www.ft.com/content/a8862f02-e487-11e6-8405-9e5580d6e5fb
I expect he's hoping his future bikes can be made of Graphene.
