Tata Group making its mark in South Africa

Tata Group, is making a significant impact in South Africa through its involvement in the automobile, steel, telecom and IT sectors.

One of India's largest multi-nationals, the Tata Group, is making a significant impact in South Africa through its involvement in the automobile, steel, telecom and Information Technology sectors.

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The business group's varied activities in the African nation find mention in its specially-published magazine, 'Tata Review,' which also gives details of its operations in the rest of the continent.

Tata's operations are run by three companies - the Tata Automobile Corporation SA (Pty) Ltd; The Engineering Division that manages businesses in steel, chemicals and engineering products; and Consilience Technologies (Pty) Limited, which caters to IT services and solutions.

Raman Dhawan, Managing Director of Tata Africa Holdings based in Johannesberg, says in the publication that since Tata's entry into Africa more than 10 years ago, the group had made a major impact through its Tata buses, pick-ups, heavy vehciles and the Indica car, launched in December 2004.

After the first batch of vehicles were introduced in December 1998, the company has moved from a situation of having sold nine vehicles in four months to sales of 1,400 vehicles in 2004-2005.

According to the 'Tata Review,' Tata's medium commercial vehicle (MCV) range is number two in the South African market and the Indica has already gained the record of being the most successful car launched in the country.

There are about 1,000 Indica vehicles in the country today and the compnay hopes to increase this to about 7,000 next year, it says.