Leveraging the Company's capabilities: The Company believe that the foundation of its growth over the last six decades has been a deep understanding of economic conditions and customer needs, and the ability to translate this understanding into desirable products though research and development. In India, its Engineering Research Centre, or ERC, which was established in 1966, has successfully designed, developed and produced a wide range of vehicles. The ERC in India and Jaguar Land Rover engineering and development operations in the United Kingdom have identified areas to leverage the facilities and resources to enhance the product development process and achieve economies of scale. Furthermore, the Company has a wholly-owned subsidiary, Tata Motors European Technical Centre PLC, or TMETC, in the United Kingdom, which is engaged in automobile research and engineering.
The Company believes that its in-house research and development capabilities, including those of its subsidiaries such as Jaguar Land Rover, TDCV, Trilix S.r.l., or Trilix, in Italy, and TMETC, in the United Kingdom and the joint ventures with Marcopolo of Brazil in India, Thonburi in Thailand and Tata Africa Holdings (SA) (Pty.) Ltd in South Africa, will enable it to expand its product range and extend its geographical reach. The Company continually strives to achieve synergies wherever possible with its subsidiaries and joint ventures. The Company aims to invest in plant modernisation and to increase manufacturing capacity and efficiency.
The Company has continued modernizing its facilities to meet demand for its vehicles. The Jamshedpur plant, which manufactures the entire range of M&HCVs, including the Prima, both for civilian and defense uses, has been modernized over the years and in Fiscal 2015, the Company celebrated 60 years of truck manufacturing at its first manufacturing and engineering facility at Jamshedpur.
The Company's product portfolio of Tata-brand vehicles, which includes the Nano, Indica, Indigo, Sumo, Sumo Grande, Safari, Safari Storme, Aria, Tiago, Zest, Bolt and Venture, enables it to compete in various passenger vehicle market categories. The Company also offers alternative fuel vehicles under the Nano and Indigo brands.
The Company also intends to expand its sales reach and volumes in rural areas, where an increase in wealth has resulted in a declining difference between urban and rural automobile purchase volumes.
Jaguar Land Rover invests substantially in the development of new products in new and existing segments by introducing new powertrains and technologies, including CO2 reduction and electrification that satisfy both customer preferences and regulatory requirements. Jaguar Land Rover also invest in expanding manufacturing capacity in the United Kingdom and internationally to meet customer demand. In line with other premium automotive manufacturers Jaguar Land Rover targets capital expenditure to revenue of 10-12%. However, in Fiscal 2017 and for some time thereafter, Jaguar Land Rover anticipates increasing capital expenditure in order to take advantage of growth opportunities. For Fiscal 2017, capital expenditure at Jaguar Land Rover is expected to be around GB£3.75 billion (approximately Rs. 358 billion), allocated approximately 43% for research and development and 57% for expenditure on tangible fixed assets such as facilities, tools and equipment as well as other investments.
In October 2014, Jaguar Land Rover opened its Engine Manufacturing Centre at Wolverhampton, in the West Midlands. The plant currently manufactures Jaguar Land Rover's own inhouse 2.0-litre diesel engine, which was first introduced into the Jaguar XE and now available in the XF, F-PACE, Evoque and Discovery Sport. The 2.0-litre petrol engine, which is anticipated to utilise the same configurable and flexible common architecture as the diesel variant, is scheduled for production later in Fiscal 2017. Jaguar Land Rover's in-house engines have been engineered to ensure maximize manufacturing efficiency, to include the flexibility to increase the number of engine variants and to be consistently high quality. Initial investment in the Engine Manufacturing Centre was approximately GB£500 million and Jaguar Land Rover recently announced an additional investment of GB£450 million to double the size of the Engine Manufacturing Centre, as the engine plant is expected to eventually employ over 1,400 people.
In July 2015, Jaguar Land Rover agreed a manufacturing patnership with Magna Steyr, an operating units Magna International Inc, to build future vehicles in Graz, Austria.
In December 2015, Jaguar Land Rover announced an initial investment of GB£1.0 billion to build a manufacturing facility in Slovakia with an annual capacity of 150,000 units, with a potential further investments of GB£500 million to increase the capacity of facility to 300,000 units per annum. Production is scheduled to commence at this facility in Fiscal 2018.
In June 2016, Jaguar Land Rover will be opening its R$ 750 million (Brazilian reals) (GB£240 million) manufacturing facility in Brazil which manfactures the Evoque and Discovery sports for the Brazilian markets.
Continuing focus on high quality and enhancing customer satisfaction: One of the Company's principal goals is to achieve international quality standards for its products and services. To that end, the Company has established a comprehensive purchasing and quality control ecosystem that is designed to consistently deliver quality products and superior service. The Company scored ranking 3 in 2015, up from 2014, in the J.D. Power Asia Pacific 2015 India Customer Service Index (CSI) Survey. The Company believes that its extensive sales and service network also enable it to provide quality and timely customer service. The Company is encouraging focused initiatives at both sales and service touch points to enhance customer experience and strive to be best in class. Furthermore, Tata Motors Finance Ltd, or TMFL, the Company's vehicle financing subsidiary, has enhanced its "Office of the Customer" initiative as well as its rural branch network and infrastructure in order to increase interactions and build relations with the Company's customers and dealers.
Leveraging brand equity: The Company believes customers associate the Tata name with reliability, trust and ethical values, and that the Company brand name gains significant international recognition due to the international growth strategies of various Tata companies. The Tata brand is used and its benefits are leveraged by Tata companies to their mutual advantage. The Company recognises the need for enhancing its brand recognition in highly competitive markets in which it competes with internationally recognized brands. The Company, along with Tata Sons and other Tata companies, will continue to promote the Tata brand and leverage its use in India and various international markets where the Company plans to increase its presence. Supported by the Tata brand, the Company believes its brands such as the Zest, the Bolt, the Indica, the Indigo, the Sumo, the Safari, the Aria, the Venture, the Nano, the Prima, the Ultra range of LCVs, the Ace, and the Magic, along with the Daewoo, are highly regarded, which the Company intends to nurture and promote further. At the same time, the Company will continue to build new brands, such as the newly launched SIGNA range of M&HCVs, the Tiago, to further enhance its brand equity.
The Company's commercial vehicle initiative, Project Neev, provides a growth programme for rural India designed to promote selfemployment. Local, unemployed rural youth have been enrolled and trained to work from homes as promoters of the Company's commercial vehicles. Project Neev is currently operational innineteen states of India and has engagement in 456 districts and 3,613 sub-districts, which covers more than 470,500 villages. The rural penetration drive initiated through Project Neev has deployed an approximately 6,500 member dedicated team in towns and villages with populations of less than 50,000. Nearly 90,000 commercial vehicles have been sold since the commencement of this programme, to which the Company attributes a 24% increase in volumes of small commercial vehicle sales. Project Neev currently completed its fifth wave of expansion, and the Company anticipates that it will operate in all major states across the country within the next couple of years. This programme has been appreciated and recognized in various forums such as the Rural Marketing Association of India Flame Awards for excellence in the field of rural marketing.
In light of the positive response received by "Truck World: Advanced Trucking Expo", which was launched in Fiscal 2015, the Company has organized 6 Truck World events in Fiscal 2016 - at Kolkata, Bhubaneshwar, Indore, Gandhidham, Hubli and Jaipur. This exposition showcases the Company's offering of medium and heavy commercial vehicles, along-with service-related brands such as Tata Genuine Parts, Tata Delight and Tata FleetMan. In Fiscal 2016, the Company introduced Programme Transcend, an initiative to empower the next-generation of entrepreneurs and also launched a driver engagement initiative – called "Ek Shaam Saarthi Ke Naam".
Another initiative through the Company's commercial vehicles business is TATA-OK. TATA-OK seeks to promote the Company's commercial vehicles by capturing new customer segments (such as economical and used vehicle buyers), promoting the sale of new vehicles through the exchange of used commercial vehicles at the Company's dealerships, increasing the resale value of its commercial vehicles products, and facilitating deeper customer engagement and thereby promoting brand loyalty and providing additional source of revenue to its channel partner's. TATA-OK has completed five years of operation, including a pilot year, which retailed over 23,600 transactions in Fiscal 2016 through over 460 retailers. The Company offers a variety of support products and services for its customers. TataFleetMan, the Company's telematics and fleet management service, is designed to enable the commercial vehicles sector to boost fleet productivity, safety and cost efficiency. With the goal of bringing the most advanced technology in this area to its customers, the Company has entered into a partnership with UK-based Microlise Limited to introduce global standards of telematics and fleet management solutions into the Indian logistics and transport industry.
In Fiscal 2016, Original Equipment manufacturer fitment of Tata Fleetman was commenced, covering all Prima (Cargo & Tippers), LPS 3518 and LPS 4018. Tata Motors Loyalty Programmes (Tata Delight and Tata Emperor) was recognized by the DMA Asia ECHO™ Awards and PMAA Dragons of Asia in December 2015.
In Fiscal 2016, the Company launched a new initiative, TATA Zippy with a promise to deliver a vehicle after repair within 48 hours or else pay a penalty to the customer. The Company also introduced Tata Kavach which deliver accidental vehicle in 15 days' post approvals or else pay a penalty to the customers. Tata Alert continues to provide breakdown assistance by promising to respond to the breakdown site within four hours of notification and to return the vehicle to the road within 24 hours. While "Priority first" continues to monitor repairs of prime models i.e. Ultra and Prima- It ensures vehicle delivery in 36 hours. These initiatives are supported by services such as the Tata on-site service and parts support through the use of container workshops and mobile service vans. These workshops are an on-site service support system that deploy a container on site which houses the repair equipment while the repairs are done at the customers' location. Mobile workshops visit potential customer sites based on the requirement for door step service. Mobile workshops are equipped with tools, compressor and washing facility. In addition, the Company offers an on-demand AMC (annual maintenance contracts) service, which provides customized AMC support for significant customers, such as large fleet owners. To improve brand equity of TATA Genuine Parts, concepts, such as the TGP Experience Centre and the Champion Zone have been started in the retail segment.
The Company also offers triple benefit insurance products for certain commercial vehicles which provide coverage for zero depreciation, loss of revenue, and replacement for total loss in case of accident. It offers a warranty of 4 years / 400,000 kilometers on drivelines for its entire range of heavy trucks with 25 tons and higher GVW and extended the same to its 16T GVW truck range.
In Fiscal 2016, Tata Motors achieved a new milestone in its last mile public transport portfolio by reaching a 300,000 sales of Tata Magic, its most popular public transport vehicle. The Company also celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Tata Ace (launched in 2005) its 'Decade of Trust' campaign throughout the country. The Company has been honoured with the 'Best Telematics Product or Launch in the Emerging Market' award for its Telematics solution, based on the popular Android platform developed for the Tata Magic Iris Electric. This year, the Company won four prestigious awards at the Apollo CV Awards namely:
- Cargo Carrier of the Year - Tata LPS 4923
- School Bus of the Year - Tata Cityride Skool Bus
- Special Application CV of the Year - Tata MHC 2038
- CV Dealer of the Year - Bhandari Automotive (Tata Motors dealership).
In order to cultivate safe practices of school bus riders, promote the Company brand image and build connections with school bus riders and stakeholders such as children, parents and school authorities, the Company launched two flagship programmes – Dream it to Win it and Humare Bus Ki Baat Hain. Season 2 of 'Humare Bus Ki Baat Hain', in Fiscal 2016, covered 563 schools in 92 cities with over 26,827 school staff participating. In Fiscal 2015, the Company, launched Tata SKOOLMAN, a student and school bus safety initiative, which is a telematics-based tracking solution, as a standard accessory for the Tata Ultra range of school buses. The Company has organized a 'School Bus Expo' in Bangalore, in which the Company exhibited it's entire range of school buses and vans namely the Iris, Magic, Winger, CityRide EX, Starbus and the Starbus Ultra. It also showcased Tata Skoolman, the telematics based tracking solution at the same event.
In Fiscal 2016, the Company organised Season 3 of the Prima Truck Racing Championship, which drew in over 55,000 spectators. The highlight of Season 3 was the first race ever of Indian truck racing talent, that was trained and nurtured in India. It has conceptualized and introduced an Indian Driver Training & Selection programme - "T1 Racer Program" to induct and train Indian truck drivers to become 'racers'. This programme will not only enhance driving skills, but also has an ultimate goal of creating well-rounded truck drivers.
In the passenger vehicle space, after a year of aggressive marketing campaigns for its new generation products, such as, the Zest, the Bolt and GenX Nano, the Company has signed up the football player star, Lionnel Messi, as a long-term global brand ambassador to promote and endorse the Company's passenger vehicles.