| Brijmohan Lall Munjal | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1923 Kamalia, British India |
| Occupation | Chairman |
| Salary | INR 11.71 crore[1] |
| Net worth | $ 1.2 billion [2] |
| Children | 4 |
| Website | |
| www.herogroup.com | |
Dr. Brijmohan Lall Munjal (Punjabi:ਬ੍ਰਿਜਮੋਹਨ ਲਾਲ ਮੁੰਜਾਲ) is an Indian businessman and the founder of The Hero MotoCorp which owns Hero Honda Motors in India and is one of the richest people in India.
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Brijmohan Lall Munjal was born in 1923 at Kamalia,district Toba Tek Singh in unpartitioned Punjab, British India. Kamalia is now in Pakistan. He was from a simple middle-class Hindu family,.[3] After completing his formal education he worked at the Army Ordnance Factory, before moving his base to India after partition.
In 1944, when Brijmohan was 20, his family sensed partition, So Brijmohan along with his elder brothers Dayanand Munjal, Satyanand Munjal and his younger brother Om Prakash Munjal came to India and settled in Amritsar. The brothers initially started a business by supplying components to manufacturers of bicycles in and around Amritsar. After the partition in 1947 the Munjal family completely shifted their base from Pakistan to Ludhiana.
At that point and still today Ludhiana was an important destination for manufacturing and industry hub of bicycles and textiles. Slowly they expanded their distribution network and by early 1950s they were supplying components of bicycles throughout India.
In 1954 Hero Cycles Ltd moved up the value chain by making a shift from supplying to manufacturing. They started manufacturing handlebars, front forks and chains. In 1956, the Punjab Government issued tender notices for twelve new industrial licenses to make bicycles in Ludhiana. Brijmohan Lall Munjal and his brothers participated in the bid and won the contract. Hero Cycles was registered as a large-scale industrial unit. The capital was partly financed by the Government of Punjab.
In 1961 Rockman Cycles Industries was established to manufacture bicycle chains and hubs. Under his leadership Hero Cycles was the first company to export bicycles in large scale. In 1975 they had earned the distinction of Largest bicycle manufactures in India. By 1986 Hero Cycles Limited entered the Guinness Book of Records as the largest manufacturers of bicycles in the world.[4]
Before entering into a joint venture with Honda Motors, Dr. Munjal started the Majestic Auto Limited and started manufacturing Hero Majestic Moped. To manufacture motor cycles in 1984 the Hero Group started a joint venture with Hero Honda and established a plant at Dharuhera Haryana. Hero Group expanded so big that by 2002 they had sold 86 million Bikes producing 16000 motorcycles a day.