Non-polluting, stocky little friends, Hero Cycles can be now bought online

Thursday July 02, 2015 , 5 min Read

Cycles are nostalgia on wheels. We all have sweet memories of our father, an uncle, or a cousin taking us around on his cycle, with us sitting and grinning on the small front seat or the carrier behind. They ring a bell in our memories when we remember the first time we rode a cycle, and fell.

yourstory-hero-cycles-4 — Then the day we received our own cycle, probably as a gift or a reward, and felt the joy no gadget today can possibly bring us. Growing up, we went to schools and tuition classes with different friends, but the one unnoticed friend - who toiled day and night to help make our dreams come true, never letting us down - was the rusty old cycle.

As we grew up, some of us gave away our cycles to those who needed it more. Some continued to keep it, locked in the backyard, dreaming of a leisurely future when cycle will become a part of our lives again. Some were rebels, and decided to fight pollution and bad-traffic with our oldest companion. And lest we forget, a major part of India still commutes to work on cycles, purely out of necessity. No matter who we are, now there is a reason to cheer-up.

The Hero story

Hero Cycles, one of the oldest cycle makers, was started by four Munjal brothers, who hailed from a small town called Kamalia, now in Pakistan. They established a business of bicycle spare parts in the year 1944 in Amritsar. After partition, they moved to Ludhiana and started a bicycle unit in 1956.

Growing steadily due to their innovation and ability to meet demands of both young and old populace, by 1975, Hero became the largest manufacturer of bicycles in India with a production of 7500 cycles per day. By 1986, they produced over 18,500 cycles a day, the highest in global reckoning. With the 48% share of the Indian market, this volume has catapulted Hero in the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest bicycle manufacturer in the world.

Going online

Keeping the trend of being pioneers alive, Hero Cycles now probes deep in the online segment. Sports365, a leading online sports store, has entered into a partnership with them to provide it an online platform for launching its line of bicycles. The launch event was recently held with Bollywood actor Arjun Kapoor coming on board as its brand ambassador.The partnership is born with the aim to sell over 1,00,000 cycles in the online space within the next 18 to 36 months and thus help the old brand fortify its footprint as one of the largest bicycle brands in the online segment as well.

As part of the agreement, Sports365 is Hero Cycle’s exclusive channel partner in the online space. During the initial month, there will be consumer centric offers to help the project kick start. These offers include cash-backs, freebies and contests. The month long promotion will be executed across all leading online platforms.

Sports365 will feature cycles for all age groups and gender - from regular rugged cycles which most of India still rides on, to the Disney range of junior cycles for kids and the Urban Trail line of cycles designed for serious bikers. There will also be an assortment of cycles for the young riders through the Octane and Sprint range. These cycles will be offered at a wallet-friendly price, and come with a warrantee of 2 years. According to Sports365’s founder and CEO, Chandra Sekhar Reddy,We are really excited about our association with Hero Cycles as their exclusive online channel partner. Sports365 has developed a very deep expertise in the Sports & fitness category, especially the online channel. We are committed to making Hero Cycles as big a brand in the online channel as it is currently on the traditional retail channel. The prospect of partnering with the world’s leading bicycle brand like Hero on areas like product assortment planning, distribution strategy and marketing initiatives is a really promising proposition for us. We have some solid plans to maximize the online business for Hero Cycles and very sure of establishing it as the leading cycling brand in the online channel.

Spokesperson Pankaj Munjal, Co-Chairman and MD, Hero Cycles said,

We have been closely watching the evolution of our consumers’ behavioral pattern. We decided to make our entire range of cycles available online to make it easier and more convenient for our buyers to pick, compare and choose from our wide range offerings. These cycles will be home delivered to our customers through our existing channels of distribution.

The combined synergy of both organizations, which includes Sports365’s hold in the online market, and Hero Cycles' reputation to innovate and deliver non polluting stocky little friends to all age groups for decades, is ready for a ride.

Image Credits : Shutterstock