Hero Cycles co-founder Satyanand Munjal dies

Manav Mander

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, April 14

Satyanand Munjal (99), co-founder of Hero Cycles group, passed away at his residence in Model Town here early today. He is survived by five sons and a daughter.

He was among the four Munjal brothers associated with the Hero Group. Om Prakash Munjal and Brij Mohan Lall Munjal died last year, while Dayanand Munjal had passed away in the 1960s.

Born on May 24, 1917, at Kamalia, Lyallpur district (now in west Pakistan), Satyanand did his early schooling in a gurukul. At the age of 17, he received an award at Quetta (Baluchistan) for his devotion to the Arya Samaj.

It was during the 1940s that the Munjal brothers burst upon the corporate scene in India. Looking beyond their traditional business of vegetable trading and pre-empting Partition, they decided to shift base from Lahore to Amritsar in 1943. In the holy city, they started supplying components to the local bicycle business.

Partition forced them to shift base again, this time to Ludhiana. The latter was the right place for young entrepreneurs like Munjals to give impetus to their bicycle component manufacturing business.

In 1956, the Punjab Government issued tenders for 12 industrial licences to make bicycles in Ludhiana. Satyanand and his brothers won the contract and Hero Cycles was registered as a large-scale industrial unit. The firm’s capital was partly financed by the state government.

Through their business acumen, the brothers expanded their company and positioned themselves as industrial tycoons.

Satyanand was popularly known as ‘mahatma’ for being committed to social causes related to the Arya Samaj. He was given this title in 2004, said his son Umesh Munjal. “He was a spiritual person who used to perform ‘yajna’ on a daily basis,” Umesh added.

It is said that nobody who came asking for help from this philanthropist went back empty-handed.

Apart from building a business empire, he set up the Bahadur Chand Munjal (BCM) Arya schools and was a member of the managing society of Dayanand Medical College and Hospital.

(With inputs from Shivani Bhakoo)