The Hindu Business Line : TACO identifies four areas of product focus

Speaking to newspersons, Mr D.S. Gupta, Managing Director, said that the four areas that have been identified are electronics, interiors, safety and emission.

"There are no gaps in our profile. So, we are looking at specialisation and would go more into these areas over time," he added.

He also said that the company would be setting up an engineering centre in Japan first and then move into manufacturing.

The company would be looking at the acquisition route in Japan, rather than going on its own, as customer access in these markets is difficult.

"But if there is an existing relationship, it would be easier to tackle. We are already doing some work with a partner in Japan and have just expanded."

In China, the company is doing plastic parts for interiors and would begin manufacturing in December 2007.

Mr Gupta was here for the inauguration of the TACO GS Yuasa facility at Ranjangaon. The facility is spread over 15 acres and has a production capacity of two million batteries a year.

Currently, the facility produces about half a million batteries a year and would touch the full production capacity within a couple of years.

It manufacturers automotive batteries for passenger cars and utility vehicles and would be expanding its product range to cater to automotive batteries for commercial vehicles and farm vehicles.

Mr Gupta said that the batteries for the light commercial vehicles would be launched in August this year, while those for farm and inverters would be launched in December.

The total investment for the expansion is Rs 100 crore, of which about 50 per cent has been utilised so far. All machines have been imported.

The facility would also cater to the two-wheeler segment and would currently be importing the batteries.

It would start manufacturing of two-wheeler batteries from next year, he said, adding that the capacity would be expanded to capacity of four million two-wheeler batteries.

Mr Yogesh Dhawan, CEO of TGY, a 50:50 joint venture between TACO and GS Yuasa International, said that 350 direct dealers and 90 distributors with a network of more than 900 sub-dealers have been already put in place.

The company is present in 15 States and is planning a national presence within three month, after which the OEM would also be in place.

TGY manufactures calcium-calcium/low antimony hybrid batteries under the Tata Green brand name; they are manufactured using raw materials that are 90 per cent recyclable.

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