Tue, Feb 16 06:28 AM
Tata Motors Ltd has hired Carl-Peter Forster, the former Europe head of General Motors Co, as the group chief executive officer to help the Indian auto major manage its global operations after purchasing Jaguar Land Rover. Forster, 55, will have "overall responsibility" of the company's global operations, including Jaguar Land Rover, Tata Motors said in a statement today.
Forster faces the challenge of boosting global sales after falling demand at the UK-based luxury vehicle-maker pushed India's biggest truck manufacturer to its first consolidated annual loss in at least seven years in the year ended March 2009. Tata hired KPMG International and Roland Berger Strategy Consultants to help trim costs at Jaguar Land Rover, which it bought from Ford Motor Co in 2008 for $2.5 billion.
Prior to joining Tata Motors, Forster was working as head of General Motors, Europe, where he looked after Opel/Vauxhall, Saab and the European activities of Chevrolet, the release said. "Tata Motors expects that Forster's induction will greatly facilitate its ambition towards being a truly international company," Tata Sons and Tata Motors Chairman Ratan N Tata said.
Jaguar Land Rover said last month its CEO David Smith would leave the company after less than two years in the top job. Smith became CEO in June 2008 after Tata took over the luxury vehicle unit from Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford. He was the chief financial officer at Jaguar before the Tata purchase. Tata Motors' global sales, including Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles, gained 93 per cent in January to 85,714 units, the company said in a separate statement today. Sales rose 13 per cent in the April-January period from a year ago.
Sales of luxury brands from Jaguar Land Rover were at 16,269 units during January, up 195 per cent from the same period last year, the company said in a statement. It said total passenger vehicles sales were 45,380 units, in January 2010, a growth of 76 per cent from the corresponding month last year.