Tata Motors’ domestic business would have to go through a challenging phase in the short-term but the company continued to focus on strengthening enablers for long-term growth and profitability, said Cyrus Mistry, Chairman.
Addressing shareholders at the company’s 69th annual general meeting (AGM), Mr. Mistry said “We accept the India business has not been doing well and 2014-15 is going to be tough as well.”
In this tough market environment, the company initiated transformational programmes “to build a strong foundation for long-term competitiveness,” he said.
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The company’s endeavour during 2014 was to firm up its design philosophy and strengthen its pipeline of products. “Aligned to this objective, are our new products Zest and Bolt which are to be launched later this year. Similarly, in commercial vehicles, the new Prima and Ultra ranges have set a direction adopting new technology.”
He said the company was looking at maintaining an annual capital expenditure of Rs.3,500-4,000 crore over the next three years.
Noting the continued strong performance of Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), he said it continued to capitalise on the strong globally recognised brands.
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While commenting on the global automobile industry, Mr. Mistry said there was a surge in sales due to strong demand in the top markets of the U.S. and China. “Europe is also showing early signs of improvement. We expect major markets of U.S. and Europe to recover, China and South-east Asia are expected to continue their growth trajectory and Africa and Latin America are being considered growth markets going forward.”
He said, in India, a stable government at the Centre had helped revive customer sentiment, and the Union Budget had “set the stage to support medium-term growth recovery by outlining policy initiatives to revive manufacturing and infrastructure. Additionally, he said, the extension of reduced excise duty regime till December 2014 was expected to support demand recovery.