MD Mr NN Tata hosts MD of Tata Motors in Africa
July 15, 2018
Mr NN Tata, Managing Director, Tata International, invited Mr Guenter Butschek, CEO and Managing Director of Tata Motors, to visit the facilities of Tata International Limited (TIL) in Africa, in June this year. The two leaders visited Tata International’s facilities in Nigeria, South Africa,Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, Kenya and Tanzania. The leaders called upon and interacted with the Prime Minister of Côte d’Ivoire, Mr Amadou Gon Coulibaly.
Mr Len Brand, Head Distribution and Executive Director Tata Africa Holdings, led the TIL team of Mr Niraj Srivastava, Head Auto, Mr Naresh Leekha, Executive Director, Tata Africa Holdings Kenya, and Mr Abhishek Singh, Head TML and General Manager; while Mr Rudrarup Maitra, Head, International Business, Commercial Vehicles, Tata Motors, led the team of regional managers of Tata Motors in Africa, accompanying the leaders on this tour. The teams used the opportunity to showcase the on-ground assets of Tata International across the locations and discuss the way ahead for the business with the leaders.
A growing relationship
The Distribution team of Tata International has been steadily growing the customer base for Tata Motors vehicles in Africa, over the years. The team is also focusing on supporting the customers towards maximum uptime with their vehicles by strengthening the after-sales network and service, resulting in increased customer loyalty.
The Tata International team across countries in Africa has been consistently recognised by Tata Motors as a leading distributor of the brand. The team has been winning top honours at the International Distributor Meets organised each year, including the latest edition held in Jaipur in February 2018, where the team won a number of awards, including one of the most prestigious – the Business Impact Award.
- Tata Africa Côte d’Ivoire won the Business Impact Award for successfully executing a deal of US$ 87 million for SOTRA. To the team’s credit, it was the biggest deal for international business in 2017 and it was a worthy reward for the great team effort put into executing this deal.
- Tata Automobile Corporation (SA) (TACSA) also scooped up three prestigious awards: a Silver Plate for 20 years of Association with Tata Motors; Highest Sales in LCV and ILCV Trucks – Category B; and Highest Sales in M&HCV Trucks – Category B.
The other awards that TIL picked up were:
- Best GSC Award: Tata Uganda
- Highest MS in Bus Segment: Tata Tanzania
- Best Distributor Award: Tata Tanzania
- Long Association Award: Tata Zambia
- Special CSR Award: Tata Kenya
- Highest Growth in ILCV Truck MS: Tata Tanzania
An eye on customer focus
As part of the visit, Mr Tata and Mr Butschek met with customers in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania. A lunch meeting was also organised with customers in Lagos, Nigeria along with the teams. In Côte d’Ivoire, the delegation met Prime Minister, Mr Amadou Gon Coulibaly, along with the Indian Ambassador Mr R Ravindra and Mr Meite, CEO and MD of Société des Transports Abidjanais (SOTRA), the Abidjan transport company that sourced 500 Tata buses from TIL. Mr Vivek Saraswat, General Manager was also present during the meeting.
The meetings enabled the leaders to interact with Tata Motors customers who are being serviced through Tata International and get a first-hand feel of the business and service standards.
