Japanese auto major Honda Motor Co on Monday (March 27) announced a top management change in its Indian two-wheeler arm, appointing Minoru Kato as President and CEO of Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (HMSI).
The appointment will be with effect from April 1, 2017, the company said in a statement.
Keita Muramatsu, the current President & CEO, who will move on to assume a new role as Executive Vice President, American Honda Co Inc, it added.
Kato has been associated with Honda for the last 29 years. 52-year old Kato started his career Honda Japan from 1988 in production control division of automobile operations at Saitama plant. From 1994 to 1998, he moved to motorcycle operations at Japan headquarter where he was involved in planning and subsequently domestic sales.
In 2001, Minaru Kato held the position of Manager at Honda Thailand. Four years later, he gained more experience of Asia Oceania region by taking over the same responsibility in Honda Indonesia. In 2007, he returned to Japan in business planning division of motorcycle operations.
Later in October 2011, he shifted base to UK as the CEO of Honda Motor Europe Company.
Recently, Kato held position as the CEO of Honda Vietnam Company from April 1, 2014.
It will be interesting to see how Kato will shape HMSI’s future in the Indian market. HMSI’s market share has grown from around 13 per cent to 27 per cent in India after breaking the 26 year long Joint Venture from Hero MotoCorp.
Will the company continue to bank on scooter sales or try to enter the Hero, Bajaj and Royal Enfield territory to boost its bike business under the new leadership is a question needs to be answered.
The auto major recently revealed that they are working on a new range of motorcycles for which they have set up a team of engineers, both from Japan and Thailand, to work in India to develop mid weight (250cc to 750cc) bikes for the Indian market.
BW Reporters
The author is Senior Correspondent with BW Businessworld
