• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager
• BL Club
• Smartbuy
• Books
• Gallery

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth
• Events 2007

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• The Hindu ePaper
• Business Line
• Business Line ePaper
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

Paul Noronha

Launching the marques: Mr Ratan Tata, Chairman, Tata Group, and Mr David Smith, Chief Executive Officer, Jaguar Land Rover, at a press conference in Mumbai on Sunday to announce the Jaguar Land Rover’s official entry into India. —

Our Bureau

Mumbai, June 28 The buyout of Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is expected to translate into useful gains for Tata Motors too.

Mr Ratan Tata, Chairman of Tata Motors, said that over time, the benefits of this acquisition would percolate down to Tata Motors where the “family resemblance of facilities and the sophistication of dealing with customers or spares” would have a common structure of sorts.

“Over time, Tata Motors would upgrade its level of customer interaction and satisfaction to its range while also managing the two other brands it represents. I would hope the two companies can work closely together in R&D and we will share in intellectual property created in one place or another,” he said.

On the significance of bringing these brands to India, Mr Tata said there was “no general leaning on the fact that the brands are Indian-owned.” On the contrary, “the fact is that we now have an ability to take an extra interest in India” which would otherwise have been lower on the priority list vis-À-vis other geographies.

“It gives us great pride to say that we have been able to bring these brands to India. I think Tata Motors has been extremely interested to upgrade the level of satisfaction that the Indian public has in motor cars,” he added.

According to Mr Tata, these British brands were emerging “as those that the discerning public is beginning to recognise again in terms of what they stand for.” He was confident that the brands would “stand their test of time” with competition. “World over, these are brands that are distinctly on the path back to recouping the glory that they had,” Mr Tata said.

Asked if there were any plans to assemble JLR vehicles, he replied that this would depend on the business case prevailing at that time. “I do not think we have any plans at the present moment to do so.”

Tata Motors, he said, has been “extremely interested” to upgrade the level of satisfaction that the public has in motor cars. “In the past, we have helped to introduce Mercedes E-class into India (through the then joint venture with Daimler) and this is a special moment because this is a company that belongs to us and we are proud to see that we can introduce it with such panache in the Indian market,” Mr Tata said.

He also reiterated that the company would not leverage JLR for its own US foray (planned for the Nano in 2011-12) as the vehicles and brands were quite different. “We would like to see Jaguar and Land Rover increase their penetration in the US market,” he said.

Mr David Smith, CEO of JLR, said the company had been successful in recent years in developing its business in key markets such as China, Russia and Brazil. It was now India’s turn to join the list.

“We see this positively and it also helps from the viewpoint of sourcing components and engineering/IT services. We are doing some collaborative research with Tata Companies in the UK and are exploring more opportunities together. There is potential to build the business further in the coming days,” he added.

More Stories on : Outlook | Cars | Tata Motors Ltd | New Products & Services

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Copyright © 2009, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line