It may be a humble hedge trimmer, or a top-of-the-range hybrid car but, almost certainly, engineers from within this global powerhouse will have drawn on a massive A$7.6 billion annual outlay to channel a steady stream of new product to the marketplace.

Honda Australia’s national sales manager, power equipment, Ray Briffa, detailed the resources associated with the world’s 20th most well-known brand name at a media day staged near the outskirts of Melbourne at Rupertswood Mansion – the birthplace of the Ashes.

While Coca Cola tops the charts it terms of brand recognition, Honda, it turns out, is ahead of Sony, Pepsi, Ikea and Ford, to list but a few household names.

Any facts relating to a company of this scope takes a minute or two to savour but consider this: annually it sells 3.5 million motor vehicles worldwide, just over 10 million motorcycles, plus about 5.2 million pieces of power equipment.

Each year, too, the company's production lines churn out some 19 million products, collectively worth about A$136 billion with about 5.5 percent of its revenues earmarked for research and development.

Interestingly, Mr Briffa said Honda's separate divisions "share technology from one to another" even though their products are quite diverse.

Despite the almost daily dump of bad news about the global economic crisis, the company oversees a remarkable success story in Australia.

Its 750 power equipment dealers (mowers, brush cutters, hedge trimmers, and the like), manage to sell more than 160,000 units annually, plus it still makes lawn mowers in Australia.