Tata to expand presence in Africa

Tata Motors has embarked on a drive to consolidate its presence in the African continent, which includes entering new markets like Nigeria and Kenya, introducing new vehicles and hiking capacity of its bus body building facility in South Africa and also add more dealers.

"Towards the end of this year, we would be entering the Nigerian and Kenyan markets with our range of commercial vehicles," Tata Africa managing director Raman Dhawan said Johannesburg.

He said the entry to these new markets would be through Tata Nigeria Ltd and Tata Kenya Ltd, respectively, which are subsidiaries of Tata Africa Holdings.

The group, which has identified South Africa as a key market for its overall plan for the African continent, has also drawn up fresh plans for introducing new vehicles in the country, while increasing the capacity of its bus building facility there.

"Later this year, we plan to introduce our sports utility vehicle Safari Dicor," Dhawan added.

Tata, which sells its passenger cars and light commercial vehicle pick up range, Telcoline through Accordian Investments Ltd in South Africa is planning to add more dealership in the country as it eyes bigger market share.

"This year, we have plans to add 18 dealers, at a rate of about three every month in South Africa," Phonnie Cilliers, chief operating officer AIL said, adding the company was looking at increasing its sales considerably.

On the heavy commmercial vehicles front, Tata Automobile Corporation SA PTY Ltd has also drawn up plans for further expanding its market share.

"Over a period of two and half years, we intend to introduce a variety of products, including from the Tata Novus range of heavy commercial vehicle," Sudhir Babset general manager, TACSA, said.

TACSA plans to introduce new tippers from the Tata Novus range and 35-40 seater buses in South Africa, he added.

Babset said the company was also looking for a new location to increase the bus building capacity.

"The current capacity of 20 buses a month is falling short of demand and we are in the process of evaluating new location in order to take the capacity to 100 a month," he said.

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