Tata Motors

In 2004, it acquired the Daewoo Commercial Vehicles Company, South Korea's second largest truck maker. The rechristened Tata Daewoo Commercial Vehicles Company has launched several new products in the Korean market, while also exporting these products to several international markets. Today (2011) two-thirds of heavy commercial vehicle exports out of South Korea are from Tata Daewoo. In 2005, Tata Motors acquired a 21% stake in Hispano Carrocera, a reputed Spanish bus and coach manufacturer, and subsequently the remaining stake in 2009. Hispano's presence is being expanded in other markets. In 2006, Tata Motors formed a joint venture with the Brazil-based Marcopolo, a global leader in body-building for buses and coaches to manufacture fully-built buses and coaches for India and select international markets. In 2006, Tata Motors entered into joint venture with Thonburi Automotive Assembly Plant Company of Thailand to manufacture and market the Company's pickup vehicles in Thailand. The new plant of Tata Motors (Thailand) has begun production of the Xenon pickup truck, with the Xenon having been launched in Thailand in 2008.

Tata Motors is also expanding its international footprint, established through exports since 1961. The Company's commercial and passenger vehicles are already being marketed in several countries in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, South East Asia, South Asia and South America. It has franchisee/joint venture assembly operations in Kenya, Bangladesh, Ukraine, Russia, Senegal and South Africa.

The foundation of the Company's growth over the last 50 years is a deep understanding of economic stimuli and customer needs, and the ability to translate them into customer-desired offerings through leading edge R&D. With over 4,500 engineers and scientists, the Company's Engineering Research Centre, established in 1966, has enabled pioneering technologies and products. The Company today has R&D centres in Pune, Jamshedpur, Lucknow, Dharwad in India, and in South Korea, Spain, and the UK. It was Tata Motors, which developed the first indigenously developed Light Commercial Vehicle, India's first Sports Utility Vehicle and, in 1998, the Tata Indica, India's first fully indigenous passenger car. Within two years of launch, Tata Indica became India's largest selling car in its segment. In 2005, Tata Motors created a new segment by launching the Tata Ace, India's first indigenously developed mini-truck.

In January 2008, Tata Motors unveiled its People's Car, the Tata Nano, which India and the world have been looking forward to. The Tata Nano has been subsequently launched, as planned, in India in March 2009. A development, which signifies a first for the global automobile industry, the Nano brings the comfort and safety of a car within the reach of thousands of families. The standard version has been priced at Rs.100,000 (excluding VAT and transportation cost).

Designed with a family in mind, it has a roomy passenger compartment with generous leg space and head room. It can comfortably seat four persons. Its mono-volume design will set a new benchmark among small cars. Its safety performance exceeds regulatory requirements in India. Its tailpipe emission performance too exceeds regulatory requirements. In terms of overall pollutants, it has a lower pollution level than two-wheelers being manufactured in India today. The lean design strategy has helped minimise weight, which helps maximise performance per unit of energy consumed and delivers high fuel efficiency. The high fuel efficiency also ensures that the car has low carbon dioxide emissions, thereby providing the twin benefits of an affordable transportation solution with a low carbon footprint.

In May 2009, Tata Motors ushered in a new era in the Indian automobile industry, in keeping with its pioneering tradition, by unveiling its new range of world standard trucks called Prima. In their power, speed, carrying capacity, operating economy and trims, they will introduce new benchmarks in India and match the best in the world in performance at a lower life-cycle cost.

Tata Motors is equally focussed on environment-friendly technologies in emissions and alternative fuels. It has developed electric and hybrid vehicles both for personal and public transportation. It has also been implementing several environment-friendly technologies in manufacturing processes, significantly enhancing resource conservation.

Through its subsidiaries, the Company is engaged in engineering and automotive solutions, construction equipment manufacturing, automotive vehicle components manufacturing and supply chain activities, machine tools and factory automation solutions, high-precision tooling and plastic and electronic components for automotive and computer applications, and automotive retailing and service operations.

Tata Motors is committed to improving the quality of life of communities by working on four thrust areas – employability, education, health and environment. The activities touch the lives of more than a million citizens. The Company's support on education and employability is focussed on youth and women. They range from schools to technical education institutes to actual facilitation of income generation. In health, our intervention is in both preventive and curative healthcare. The goal of environment protection is achieved through tree plantation, conserving water and creating new water bodies and, last but not the least, by introducing appropriate technologies in our vehicles and operations for constantly enhancing environment care.

The Tata Group comprises over 90 operating companies in seven business sectors: communications and information technology, engineering, materials, services, energy, consumer products and chemicals. The group has operations in more than 80 countries across six continents, and its companies export products and services to 85 countries.

The total revenue of Tata companies, taken together, was $83.3 billion (around Rs379,675 crore) in 2010-11, with 58 per cent of this coming from business outside India. Tata companies employ over 425,000 people worldwide. The Tata name has been respected in India for 140 years for its adherence to strong values and business ethics.

Every Tata company or enterprise operates independently. Each of these companies has its own board of directors and shareholders, to whom it is answerable. There are 28 publicly listed Tata enterprises and they have a combined market capitalisation of about $81.61 billion (as on November 9, 2011), and a shareholder base of 4.3 million. The major Tata companies are Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Tata Power, Tata Chemicals, Tata Global Beverages, Indian Hotels and Tata Communications.

Tata Steel became the tenth-largest steelmaker in the world after it acquired Corus, later renamed Tata Steel Europe. Tata Motors is among the top five commercial vehicle manufacturers in the world and has recently acquired Jaguar and Land Rover. TCS is a leading global software company, with delivery centres in the US, UK, Hungary, Brazil, Uruguay and China, besides India. Tata Global Beverages is the second-largest player in tea in the world. Tata Chemicals is the world's second-largest manufacturer of soda ash and Tata Communications is one of the world's largest wholesale voice carriers.

In tandem with the increasing international footprint of Tata companies, the Tata brand is also gaining international recognition. Brand Finance, a UK-based consultancy firm, valued the Tata brand at $15.75 billion in 2011 and ranked it 41st among the world's 100 most valuable brands. BusinessWeek magazine ranked Tata 17th among the '50 Most Innovative Companies' list and the Reputation Institute, USA, in 2009 rated it 11th on its list of the world's most reputable companies.

Founded by Jamsetji Tata in 1868, Tata's early years were inspired by the spirit of nationalism. It pioneered several industries of national importance in India: steel, power, hospitality and airlines. In more recent times, its pioneering spirit has been showcased by companies such as TCS, India's first software company, and Tata Motors, which made India's first indigenously developed car, the Indica, in 1998 and recently unveiled the world's lowest-cost car, the Tata Nano.

Tata companies have always believed in returning wealth to the society they serve. Two-thirds of the equity of Tata Sons, the Tata promoter company, is held by philanthropic trusts that have created national institutions for science and technology, medical research, social studies and the performing arts. The trusts also provide aid and assistance to non-government organisations working in the areas of education, healthcare and livelihoods. Tata companies also extend social welfare activities to communities around their industrial units. The combined development-related expenditure of the trusts and the companies amounts to around 4 per cent of the net profits of all the Tata companies taken together.

Going forward, Tata is focusing on new technologies and innovation to drive its business in India and internationally. The Nano car is one example, as is the Eka supercomputer (developed by another Tata company), which in 2008 was ranked the world's fourth fastest. Anchored in India and wedded to traditional values and strong ethics, Tata companies are building multinational businesses that will achieve growth through excellence and innovation, while balancing the interests of shareholders, employees and civil society.

Tata Group North American

The Tata group has had a presence in the North American market and been a part of the communities there for over 60 years.

As the largest India-headquartered multinational in North America, Tata has 12 companies and more than 22,000 employees in the US and Canada. It established its US presence in 1945, roughly two months after the end of the Second World War.

Tata companies own some of the most recognized brands in North America, including Tetley, Good Earth, Eight O'Clock Coffee, The Pierre New York and the Campton Place Hotel (in San Francisco). In addition, Tata Motors and Tata Communications (a global telecommunications provider) trade shares on the New York Stock Exchange.

Five core values — integrity, understanding, excellence, unity and responsibility — are woven into the fabric of Tata and its brands, and these are fundamental to their success around the world.

Tata Chemicals North America Inc., Tata Chemicals North America Inc., hereinafter referred to as Tata Chemicals North America (TCNA), is one of the world's leading producers of high-quality soda ash. TCNA and its predecessor companies have been producing soda ash (also known as sodium carbonate) since 1884. Soda ash is a raw material used by several industries to make a range of essential products, such as glass, baking soda, laundry detergent, paper, textiles, potable water and clean air.

Formerly known as General Chemical Industrial Products Inc., TCNA became a part of Tata Chemicals Ltd. (TCL) in 2008. TCL, a part of the global Tata Group, is one of the world's leading chemicals companies, with a widespread portfolio of household products, industrial chemicals and agricultural additives. TCL has its soda ash operations in the US, UK, Kenya and India.

Headquartered in New Jersey, TCNA's manufacturing operations are based in Green River, Wyoming, USA. TCNA's Green River facility is one of the largest soda ash facilities in North America, with an underground trona mine that spans 55 square miles. Trona is a naturally occurring mineral ore that contains sodium carbonate compounds.

TCNA mines more than 4.5 million tons per year of trona ore that it processes into soda ash at its surface refining plant. The estimated recoverable trona ore reserves consist of approximately 600 million tons, enough to provide approximately 100 years of reserves based on current operating rates.

The Green River facility is jointly owned by TCNA (the managing partner with a 75 percent stake) and Owens-Illinois Inc. (25 percent stake), a world leader in glass container manufacture.