28 May,2011 07:17 AM IST | | Aishwarya Kadam
Pune witnesses the inauguration of Tata Motors and Jaguar Land Rover's first unit in the country
Amidst celebrations, Tata Motors and Jaguar Land Rover officially opened their first assembly plant in India yesterday at Tata Motors plant in Pune. This plant will assemble Land Rover Freelander 2 vehicles supplied in Complete Knock Down form from Jaguar Land Rover's Halewood manufacturing plant. Carl Peter Forster, CEO and MD of Tata Motors; Ralf Speth, CEO of Jaguar Land Rover; John Edwards, Global Brand director of Land Rover; Rohit Suri, Head of Premier car division for Tata Motors; P M Telang, MD Indian operations for Tata Motors and Frank Klaas, Global Head Communications for Jaguar Land Rover were present for this occasion.
Grand opening: India's first Land Rover plant was inaugurated
yesterday in Pune with pomp and show. Pic/Shadab Khan
While speaking at the press conference Forster said, "It's been a year since we started our first dealership in India. The opening of this plant marks significant benefits for both Tata Motors, being the parent company, and Jaguar Land Rover." Jaguar Land Rover has over 2,300 franchised dealers around the world, employing almost 53,000 people. They witnessed an outstanding performance for the last fiscal year by the global sales going up by 19%. Around 891 units were sold in India itself, within the year.
Speth said, "India is a fast growing market. We too plan to grow and set a geographical footprint globally. We plan to introduce 40 new products over the next five years. We believe we have great potential to sharpen DNA of our each and every product, thereby making us the most demanded brand in the Indian market."
Although they yet do not have a complete setup in India, they plan to expand by opening 14 dealer outlets in 12 major metros by September this year. The award winning Freelander 2 is now available in India in two variants. The prices start at Rs 33.89 lakh.
