Tata Tea scouts global buys

Tata Tea, the world’s second-largest tea company after FMCG giant Unilever with FY09 revenues of Rs 4,874 crore, on Thursday said it wants to acquire global brands in Russia, South America, Asia Pacific and Africa. These proposed acquisitions are part of Tata Tea’s new thrust on attaining global leadership in beverages.

Tata Tea is planning to operationally integrate five areas of its business—products & categories, brands, distribution, people, and processes—under an overarching management team of six people: Tetley CEO Peter Unsworth, Tata Tea MD Percy Siganporia, Tata Tea CFO L Krishnakumar, Tata Coffee MD Hamid Ashraff, Tata Tea HR head Nalin Miglani, and Tetley head of brands and marketing John Nicholas.

Branded tea contributes around 86% to Tata Tea’s consolidated worldwide turnover, with the remaining coming from bulk tea, coffee, and investment income. Two-thirds of Tata Tea’s revenues accrue from international markets.

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Steeldons battle gear to fight inflation,cut prices

Steel companies and the government on Thursday worked out a plan that will ensure adequate supply of steel in domestic markets and spare curbs on current export commitments of the companies. The companies in turn agreed to reduce prices of long products, like TMT bars, by Rs 2,000 per tonne and corrugated sheets by Rs 500-1,000 per tonne. These products account for about 25% of the domestic steel demand.

The companies also agreed to use imported hot rolled coils to manufacture high grade steel for exports. The meeting-attended by representatives of Sail, RINL, Tata Steel, JSW, Jindal Steel and Power Ltd, Essar, Ispat, Bhusan Steel & Power and the steel ministry officials-decided to exclude domestically produced HR coils from exports, thereby easing local supply constraints.

Sources said the decision will avert a 10% export tax on steel exports. Another proposal being toyed with is to scrap the 5% import duty on steels.

"Producers of long steel products like TMT bars, prices of which had increased sharply, have agreed that they will roll the prices back.

It is expected that these companies, including Tata and state-run RINL, will provide a relief of Rs 2,000 per tonne to ensure that the common man is not hit," steel secretary R S Pandey said after the meeting.

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Rs 1-lakh Nano unveiled

Ratan Tata on Thursday finally unveiled his dream car to the world.

Driving onto the podium in a gleam ing Tata Nano at the ninth Auto Expo, the Tata group chairman silenced sceptics with a Rs 1-lakh car featuring rear-wheel drive and powered by a 623cc, 33 bhp multi-point fuel injection petrol engine.

"Despite a steep rise in input costs since the product was conceptualised four years back, we will introduce the car at Rs 1 lakh because a promise is a promise," Tata said.

The Nano, which will be rolled out from the company's upcoming plant at Singur in West Bengal by the second half of this fiscal, will be available in three variants: a standard and two deluxe models.

While the no-frills standard model will be available at a dealer price of Rs 1 lakh (excluding Vat and transportation), the deluxe models with additional features like air conditioning would carry a higher sticker price.

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Image and Article source: Financial Express
Article taken from the issue: 10 Jan 2008