Hero Cycles was established in 1956 in LudhianaPunjab, manufacturing bicycle components. Today, Hero Cycles is one of the world's largest manufacturers of bicycles, producing 18390 cycles per day.[9][10] Hero Cycles Ltd. is part of Hero Motors Company.[11] In 2016 Hero cycles exported to over 70 countries world-wide.[12][13] The company is ISO9001 & ISO14001 certified.
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.[14][15][16][17][18] Hero Cycles bought the Firefox bicycle brand in 2015.[19][20][21][22]
In 2015, Hero Cycles Lt. bought a majority stake in Avocet Sports Ltd., a UK distributor of bicycles, e-bikes, bicycle parts, and accessories.[23][24][25] Insync Bikes brand was launched by Avocet in November 2018.[26] In 2019, Hero bought a majority stake in German e-bike manufacturer HNF-Nicolai.[27][28][29] In 2016, Hero bought 60% of Sri Lankan bicycle manufacturer BSH Ventures.[30][31][32][33]
In 1986, the Guinness World Records called Hero Cycles the largest bicycle manufacturer in the world.[34] for being the single largest producer of bicycles.
The HMC family[36][37] is made up of organizations such as Hero Cycles Ltd., Avocet Sports (UK),[38] BSH (Sri Lanka), Firefox Bikes (not to be confused with the browser by Mozilla),[39] Spur,[40] HGD,[41] Hero Motors,[42] Munjal Hospitality,[43][44] Munjal Kiriu,[45] ZF Hero[46] and OMA.[47]
