Tata Motors Will Not Go For Layoffs: Guenter Butschek

Tata Motors is not looking to reduce the workforce due to the ongoing slowdown in the domestic market, as it expects things to get better amid a wave of new products lined up for the launch over the next few months, a top company official has said.

According to its website, the automobile major currently employs about 83,000 persons with presence across commercial and passenger vehicles.

"We do not have such kind of plan," Tata Motors Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Guenter Butschek told media when asked if the company was looking at rationalizing its workforce owing to a prolonged downturn in the domestic automobile industry.

He added that if the company would have liked to take such a step then it would have taken it already. "We are now for 12 months in crisis. If I would have liked to pull the trigger, I would have done it earlier," Butschek said.

The company is now in the midst of new product launches that include Altroz, Nexon EV and Gravitas SUV over the next few months and there is also the transition to BS-VI norms, he added.

"I am convinced that whatever the economy is going to do, we are well-positioned in order to outperform the market...since the entire product range is set on a different cost base, our baseline profitability is significantly better than any given point of time before. So, I am pretty positive at this time," Butschek said.

He added that the company is taking all necessary steps in the commercial vehicle (CV) space, which continues to be its backbone in terms of revenues, to beat the current situation.

Butschek added that the company continues to do well in the CV space and that gives the company a great level of confidence. "We have right kind of products, our dealer network is firing and at the moment we think that we can actually surf the wave," he noted.