Motorcycle manufacturer Hero MotoCorp is to establish its first manufacturing plant outside India in south east Columbia.

According to The Times of India, the $70 million factory will create 300 jobs.

Managing director Pawan Munjal said: “Today, we laid the foundation stone of our manufacturing plant at Villa Rica in Colombia — the first fully fledged plant by an Indian two-wheeler manufacturer in Latin America.

“When it opens towards the middle of financial year 2015-16, the plant will have an annual capacity of 78,000 units; that will be scaled up to 150,000 units in the following three to four years.”

Hero MotoCorp — previously Hero Honda — sold a record 6.25 million motorcycles in the 2013-14 financial year. It hopes to reach the 100 million mark by 2020, according to The Times of India.