Ratan Tata talks to The Telegraph about his hopes for JLR as he hands over leadership of Tata Group.
Born and raised in Mumbai, Ratan Tata was chairman of Tata Group from 1991 and took the company from a middling Indian conglomerate to global manufacturing empire in that time. Tata is now responsible for the employment of 50,000 workers in the UK.
But, effective November 8, Ratan Tata (75) stepped down from his role. Cyrus Mistry, Tata Groups single largest shareholder, will take on the company chairmanship.
In the last decade Tata Group has made some transformative acquisitions in the global industrial marketplace including many in the UK, perhaps most notably, Jaguar Land Rover.
In an interview with The Telegraph this week Ratan Tata revealed his thoughts on the progress JLR has made since coming under Tata Group’s ownership and where the challenges lie as it tries to sustain its growth.
Enabling the recovery of Jaguar Land Rover is an achievement Ratan Tata ranks highly in his impressive career. Other’s such as the acquisition of the Anglo-Dutch steel firm Corus get a more mixed review.
And despite JLR’s meteoric revival since 2008 and its current importance to the British economy, Mr Tata warns that the UK must work harder to make itself an attractive manufacturing prospect for the future.
He tells The Telegraph, “The economic situation, the high cost of undertaking manufacturing, the supply chain – which is by the way dying out also as manufacturing undergoes hardship – make the UK not the first place you would look at to make a manufacturing investment.”
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