Case 10: Tata Motors

Introduction:
TATA group
Tata group was founded in 1868 by Jamsedji Tata. Tata group generates a revenue of around
USD 110.7 billion with 702454 employees worldwide. Under Tata group there is 28 public listed
Tata enterprises with a combined market capitalization of around USD 145.3 billion. The major
Companies under Tata group are Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Tata
Chemicals, Tata Global Beverages, Titan, Tata Capital, Tata Power, Tata Advanced
Systems, Indian Hotels and Tata Communications.

TATA motors Limited

Tata Motors Limited is a part of Tata group. The company was formerly known as TELCO (Tata
engineering and Locomotive company). Tata motors is one of the largest Indian multinational
automotive manufacturing company with headquarters in Mumbai, Maharashtra. The major
products of Tata motors include passenger cars, sports car, buses, trucks, military vehicles,
construction equipment, coaches, vans.
Tata motors has auto manufacturing and assembly plants in Jamshedpur, Pantnagar, Lucknow,
Sanand, Dharwad and Pune in India and in countries Argentina, south Africa, Thailand and
Britan. The company currently ranks 226th on fortune global 500 list of world’s biggest
corporations. Tata Motors started its passenger car manufacturing in 1988. The first product
launched was Tata mobile and then Tata sierra in 1991. Tata launched its first fully indigenous
Indian passenger car in 1998, Tata Indica. In 2008 it launched the worlds cheapest car, Tata
Nano.
Latest Products in Tata Motors passenger vehicle segment
Following are the products available in the passenger vehicle segment
 Tiago
 Tigor
 Hexa
 Zest
 Bolt
 Safari Storm
 Gen X Nano
 Sumo gold
 Harrier
 Nexon

Study Methodology
To study the dealer network relationship of Tata Motors, a visit was conducted to Tata Motors
passenger vehicle dealer located in Raipur, Tata Motors Bhasin. We interviewed the General
manager of Sales on how dealers are benefited from Tata Motors and the policy of Tata motors
to maintain the relationship with dealers.
Person Interviewed
Name: Mr. Pradeep Shukla
Designation: General Manager Sales
Mob: +91 9229330903
Email: sales@bhasinmotors.com

Location: Bhasin Motors Passenger car dealer

NH06 near Magento mall, Krishak Nagr, Raipur, Chhattisgarh 492012
Website www.bhasinmotors.com

Interview excerpts:
Q) What are the incentives Tata motors provide to dealers?

Ans: There are two types of incentives, One from retail sales and other from wholesale sales.

Tata motors prefer wholesale sales as in how fast the dealers purchase the Car from Tata motors. Tata
Motors keep both retail and wholesale targets to be met by dealers.
Q) what are the targets that Tata motors set?

Ans: Annual targets are set in the annual meeting and the target for every month keep on changing
every month depending on the market situations. We cannot exactly forecast the sales for a certain
month. The target changes from showroom to showroom, location to location to location and month to
month. The targets change according to the situation in market and varies up and down.

Q) what are the training that Tata Motors give to their employees?

Ans: Tata Motos give training frequently and the training team is called “DHRONA”. The training is
usually for 4 days and if a new product comes into market, they give special training for that as well. The
training happens in Raipur and if the number of people requiring training is high the trainer from TATA
comes to the dealer. They give special motivational training to those employees who are continuously
not performing for 3-4 consecutive months.

Q) How often does TATA employees visit the dealer?

Ans: They visit the dealer very frequently. For Chhattisgarh there are three TSM (territory sales
manager). One TSM has only two to three dealerships, so they visit very frequently.

Q) Does TATA provide any assistance during festival season?

Ans: Every promotions, advertisements and sales programs are completely done by Tata motors

Q) Does Tata motors help in achieving targets, if targets are not met by dealers?

Ans: They don’t do help as in, but sometimes they provide additional intervention, they review the
scheme and if there is anything that can be done to close the deal like cash discount or something, they
support to close the deal.

Q) Since this is a passenger dealership, does tata motor help in getting dealership for commercial
vehicles?

Ans: No, they don’t provide much support as these sectors, commercial and passenger are entirely
different. There are three sectors in TATA motors- commercial, passenger and EV. EV is the coming
future. EV is coming into metro cities as of now and they are delivering it now. They are waiting for
price reveal from TATA in Chhattisgarh. Those who are currently working as passenger dealers will
automatically qualify for EV vehicle sales and they have received EV test drive vehicles and their
registration for EV dealership is complete.

Q) What are the financial supports TATA motors give and their credit policies?

Ans: There is no credit policy for TATA motors , but in some situations if the sales in diesel cars is low,
they sometime deliver on credit and there are no exacts norms for such credit policies.

Q) Does TATA motors provide warehouse facilities?

Ans: NO, everything comes directly from factory once the order is punched. The delivery come by road
from plants in Pune, Maharashtra and Sanand in Gujarat.

Q) if TATA wants to open a new dealership, would they approach existing dealers?
Ans: Yes, they do approach the existing dealer and ask whether they are interested in opening a new
dealership. But they do not provide any financial assistance in opening new dealership or not even bank
collateral support like Maruti does for its dealers.

Q) How does TATA motor support the dealers in the current economic slowdown situation?

Ans: Yes, the market is very down now. Tata as such doesn’t do much as they are also suffering the same
problem , but they sometimes provide assistance in liquidating the vintage stocks.

Q) what are the mandates for showroom design?

Ans: Every showroom must look similar and they provide complete design and layout. Even the furniture
material comes from the TATA directly and they are just assembled in showroom. In future if there are
any additional design changes TATA provide financial assistance in 70: 30 ratio (30 by TATA). During
initial showroom setup, all expenses should be spent by dealer.

Q) How efficient is the TATA supply chain?

Ans: It is very efficient, they have like GPS tracking of their order and the truck is dispatched from
factory once the load is full , They also take load to nearby showrooms also. If it is small truck 6 cars and
big truck 9 vehicle is the capacity. It takes 4 days to get delivered from Pune and 7 days from sanand

Q) What are the reasons for current economic slowdown in auto sector?

Ans: There is specific reasons as such. Car is always considered as a status symbol and will remain to do
so in peoples mind. This is just a negative sentiment and is temporary. The sales are down by 50% from
previous year and the market leaders’ sales is down by 38%.

Q) How good is the TATA after sales support?

Ans: It is very good. Complete roadside assistance 24X7 is provided by tata and spare parts if very urgent
depending on the type of customer will be sent by air and the cost of this shipment would be taken by
TATA motors.

Thank you.

Summary
Tata motors is a dealer-oriented company and their policies revolve around their overall enhancement.
They aid to the dealers in terms of training of staffs regularly, providing liquidation of vintage stocks,
complete promotion and advertisement during festive seasons. The supply chain of Tata motors for
delivering cars and spare parts is also very efficient and they utilize latest technologies, like GPS to
monitor the load. The targets are different for different months depending upon the conditions in
market. The TSM looks after two to three dealership in Chhattisgarh, so they get more time to look into
the problems faced by dealers and find effective solutions for it.