Honda refers to Honda Corporation, which is the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer and also ranks among the top ten automobile manufacturers in terms of automobile production and scale. Founded in October 1946 and established in September 1948, the company was founded by the legendary figure Soichiro Honda. The company is headquartered in Tokyo and has a total of approximately 180000 employees. Now, Honda is a multinational automobile and motorcycle production and sales group. Its products include not only automobiles and motorcycles, but also power machinery products such as generators and agricultural machinery. In 2017, among BrandZ's top 100 most valuable global brands, Honda Motors ranked 91st with .163 billion. On July 19, 2018, the Fortune Global 500 list was released, and Honda ranked 30th. In December 2018, Honda was shortlisted for the 2018 World Brand 500. On February 19, 2019, Japanese automaker Honda was preparing to announce the closure of its factory in Swindon, UK.