Brijmohan Lall Munjal (1 July 1923 – 1 November 2015) was an Indian entrepreneur and the founder of Hero Group.

Early life

Munjal was born on 1 July 1923 in Kamalia, undivided India, which is located in the Toba Tek Singh District of present-day

Punjab, Pakistan Punjab (, ) is a Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Pakistan. With a population of over 127 million, it is the Demographics of Pakistan, most populous province in Pakistan and the List of first-level administrative divisions by popu ...

. He came to

Amritsar Amritsar, also known as Ambarsar, is the second-List of cities in Punjab, India by population, largest city in the India, Indian state of Punjab, India, Punjab, after Ludhiana. Located in the Majha region, it is a major cultural, transportatio ...

from Kamalia in 1944 at the age of 20 with his three brothers, Dayanand, Satyanand and

Om Prakash Om Prakash Chibber (19 December 1919 – 21 February 1998) was an Indian film actor. He was born in Jammu and was a well known character actor of Bollywood, Hindi Cinema. His most well-known movies are Mere Hamdam Mere Dost (1968 film), ''Mere ...

. He started his career working in the Indian Ordnance Factories.

Merchant and industrialist

Once in Amritsar, Munjal and his brothers started a bicycle parts business. They later moved to

Ludhiana Ludhiana () is the most populous Cities in India, city in the Indian state of Punjab, India, Punjab.164.100.161.224 http://164.100.161.224 › filesPDF Ludhiana State: Punjab Business & Industrial Centre, Tier 2 1 ... The city has an estima ...

, where in 1954, he founded Hero Cycles Limited and began making bicycle parts, starting with forks and then adding handles and other parts. In 1956, the Punjab government issued a license to manufacture bicycles. His company got this license and from here his world changed. With the financial support of Rs 6

lakh A lakh (; abbreviated L; sometimes written lac) is a unit in the Indian numbering system equal to one hundred thousand (100,000; scientific notation: 105). In the Indian 2, 2, 3 convention of digit grouping, it is written as 1,00,000. F ...

from the government and its own capital, Hero Cycles forayed into bicycle manufacturing by getting the status of "Large Scale Unit". The company had an annual production capacity of 7,500 cycles at that time. By 1975 it had become the largest bicycle company in India and in 1986, Hero Cycles was entered in the Guinness Book as the world's largest bicycle company.

Hero Honda

After the bicycle company, he opened a two-wheeler company named Hero Majestic Company. In this, he started making Majestic scooters and mopeds. In 1984, he signed a deal with Japan's big auto company

Honda commonly known as just Honda, is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate automotive manufacturer headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in October 1946 by Soichiro Honda, Honda has bee ...

and from here his world changed again. Together with Honda, he set up a plant in Dharuhera,

Haryana Haryana () is a States and union territories of India, state located in the northern part of India. It was carved out after the linguistic reorganisation of Punjab, India, Punjab on 1 November 1966. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with les ...

. On 13 April 1985, Hero Honda's first bike CD 100 came on the market. The Hero Group made such progress that by 2002, 8.6 million Hero Honda motorcycles had been sold and 16,000 motorcycles were being produced daily.

Hero MotoCorp

In August 2011, after exiting the joint venture with Honda Motors, the company was renamed Hero MotoCorp, and the Hero Group decided to pay royalties to Honda Company in order to use the Hero Honda brand by 2013. The Hero Group was then able to export to countries where Honda already had business and Hero-Honda joint venture had not been allowed to sell goods.

Personal life

Brijmohan was married to Santosh and they have four sons (including Pawan and Sunil) and a daughter. He died on 1 November 2015.

Awards

Brijmohan Lal Munjal was awarded the

Padma Bhushan The Padma Bhushan (IAST: ''Padma Bhūṣaṇa'', lit. 'Lotus Decoration') is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 Januar ...

by the Government of India in 2005 in the field of industry and trade. Other major honors he has received include: * Lifetime Contribution Award by All India Management Association in 2011 * The Forbes India Leadership Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2014

References

{{reflist Munjal family Indian company founders Indian billionaires Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in trade and industry Indian industrialists 1923 births 2015 deaths 20th-century Indian businesspeople 21st-century Indian businesspeople