Team-BHP > The Indian Car Scene


Reply
  Search this Thread
7,234 views
Old 4th October 2010, 17:47   #1
BHPian
 
amoghchaphalkar's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Pune
Posts: 636
Thanked: 703 Times
Tata Motors acquires Italian Design Firm

Tata Motors acquires 80% stake in Trilix Srl., Italy

Tata Motors has acquired 80% stake in Trilix Srl., Turin (Italy), a design and engineering company, for a consideration of €1.85 million. The remaining 20% stake is equally held by its promoters, Mr. Bryn Jones, Mr. Federico Muzio and Mr. Justyn Norek. The acquisition is in line with the company’s objective to enhance its styling/design capabilities to global standards.

About Trilix

Trilix offers design and engineering services in the automotive sector, specifically styling, architecture, packaging, surfacing, macro and micro feasibility, detailed engineering development. Other services include physical models (styling, surface sign-off, etc.), CAE and manufacturing process feasibility. Trilix has over the years developed a strong understanding of the Tata brand and excellent working relationships with the company in several projects. In 2009, Trilix had a turnover of € 4 million with an EBITDA of € 540,000 and PAT of € 250,000.

LMS Studio Legale, Milan (Italy), acted as legal advisors to the Company for this transaction.

About Tata Motors

Tata Motors is India's largest automobile company, with consolidated revenues of Rs. 92,519 crores ($ 20 billion) in 2009-10. Through subsidiaries and associate companies, Tata Motors has operations in the UK, South Korea, Thailand and Spain. Among them is Jaguar Land Rover, the business comprising the two iconic British brands. It also has an industrial joint venture with Fiat in India. With over 5.9 million Tata vehicles plying in India, Tata Motors is the country’s market leader in commercial vehicles and among the top three in passenger vehicles. It is also the world's fourth largest truck manufacturer and the second largest bus manufacturer. Tata cars, buses and trucks are being marketed in several countries in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, South East Asia and South America. (Tata Motors - HomePage )

Source : Tata Motors - Media Centre
amoghchaphalkar is offline  
Old 4th October 2010, 18:28   #2
BHPian
 
Join Date: May 2010
Location: God'sowncountry
Posts: 119
Thanked: 34 Times

At least we can hope to see some refreshing designs. I wish they had acted in time and took a good stake in the famous Italdesign.

Trilix ? Who? Not even a website? Which are the successful cars designed by them? any idea?
specialist1968 is offline  
Old 4th October 2010, 18:45   #3
BHPian
 
kadanaJ's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Mumbai
Posts: 584
Thanked: 952 Times

Rs. 11.29 Crore for 80% stake.
Doesn't seem like it's a major company that has done any major projects, so I doubt it's designed any cars.

P.S. Don't confuse it with Trilix Group, a U.S. based advertising agency. They're different companies.
kadanaJ is offline  
Old 4th October 2010, 20:39   #4
BHPian
 
HuseinZS's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Mumbai/Pune
Posts: 35
Thanked: 13 Times

the only info one can find on-line about the company is on Linked in... TRILIX srl - Company Profile | LinkedIn
HuseinZS is offline  
Old 4th October 2010, 21:45   #5
Senior - BHPian
 
sandeepmdas's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Varkala
Posts: 1,536
Thanked: 2,489 Times

Quote:
Originally Posted by kadanaJ View Post
Rs. 11.29 Crore for 80% stake.
Doesn't seem like it's a major company that has done any major projects, so I doubt it's designed any cars.
Perhaps they have designed something that impressed Tata Motors so much so they decided to buy the firm?

The TATA name's there in this transaction, otherwise something would have been really fishy...

Last edited by sandeepmdas : 4th October 2010 at 21:47.
sandeepmdas is offline  
Old 4th October 2010, 22:08   #6
Senior - BHPian
 
HammerHead's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Goan in Pune
Posts: 1,246
Thanked: 641 Times

Quote:
Originally Posted by specialist1968 View Post
At least we can hope to see some refreshing designs.
I don't think so. Somewhere I read Aria is designed by Italdesign which does not look 'refreshing' IMO.

Quote:
I wish they had acted in time and took a good stake in the famous Italdesign.
Even I though so, but then Italdesign is already taken over by VW
HammerHead is offline  
Old 4th October 2010, 23:02   #7
BHPian
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Home
Posts: 180
Thanked: 106 Times

Woohoo! Designers for the next gen 'indigenous' Safari hired!

Seriously,hope they are able to churn out a few stylish designs.No more Christmas tree,please!
Recompose is offline  
Old 5th October 2010, 09:56   #8
MAS
Senior - BHPian
 
MAS's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Chennai
Posts: 1,940
Thanked: 1,613 Times

Instead of taking over design firms, TATA should take over some "Quality control firms".

TATA already has a decent product line-up, but reason why people like me keep away from TATA is due to their reliability issues. TATA needs to address this urgently.
MAS is offline  
Old 5th October 2010, 10:04   #9
BHPian
 
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Chennai
Posts: 171
Thanked: 116 Times

Mr. Muzio was the principal designer for the Indica / Indigo series (old & new). It was bound to happen with the crisis that Italy & Greece are currently under going.
rajess_in is offline  
Old 5th October 2010, 12:39   #10
BHPian
 
anmol2k4's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Gr. Noida Aka Gurrator Naveda
Posts: 193
Thanked: 5 Times

Tata Motors used to work with Idea Design, some of its members like Justin Norek left it and started Trilix. Trilix later on designed Tata Nano.
anmol2k4 is offline  
Old 5th October 2010, 13:19   #11
Senior - BHPian
 
maxbhp's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2006
Location: C C K
Posts: 1,382
Thanked: 89 Times

Quote:
Originally Posted by RECOMPOSE View Post
Woohoo! Designers for the next gen 'indigenous' Safari hired!

Seriously,hope they are able to churn out a few stylish designs.No more Christmas tree,please!
They never had shortfall in getting designers. They have had previous association with I.D.E.A and IAD . I personally don't think design wise they need a major improvement, its their overall level of fit and finish that needs a drastic improvement.

Improving quality standards for vendor approval would be a good start but i really doubt this is going to happen anytime soon. The present levels of fit and finish is still below par with the industry standard.

I would say its very FIAT(India) like. Not bad from outside but interior fit and finish is .

Last edited by maxbhp : 5th October 2010 at 13:24.
maxbhp is offline  
Old 6th October 2010, 12:27   #12
Senior - BHPian
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Faridabad/Delhi
Posts: 1,701
Thanked: 776 Times

Quote:
Originally Posted by specialist1968 View Post
Trilix ? Who? Not even a website? Which are the successful cars designed by them? any idea?
Quote:
Originally Posted by kadanaJ View Post
Rs. 11.29 Crore for 80% stake.
Doesn't seem like it's a major company that has done any major projects, so I doubt it's designed any cars.
Fully agree with you guys. Trilix is a nondescript design house whose only known output so far has been the Indica Vista, an uninspiring design, to say the least. On the other hand, when Tata designed the first generation Indica, they went to the reputed IDEA for styling which charged a hefty fee of Rs. 80 crore for the job. No wonder the car 'wowed' one and all when it was first unveiled in January 1998. A lot of people bought the car just for its looks.

Trilix was founded by one Justin Noyek, an ex-IDEA designer, with Tata helping him found the firm. Tata sort of poached him from IDEA! This was Tata's strategy of cutting down the cost of styling the 2nd gen Indica. When I look at the insipid styling of Vista & Manza, I wonder if it was the right strategy.

Among Tata's newer products, the good looking ones have again got styled by reputed design houses. Nano was done by IDEA, Prima sedan was done by Pinnafarina while the world truck has been done by Stile Bertone - all design houses with formidable reputations. The fact that 80% of Trilix's equity could be acquired for a measly 10 crore rupees is a good indicator of its styling capability, or the lack of it!

This acquisition would suggest that Trilix will probably style more products for Tata which, looking at Trilix's work so far, isn't a very healthy sign for Tata, IMHO.
directinjection is offline  
Old 6th October 2010, 12:38   #13
Senior - BHPian
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Faridabad/Delhi
Posts: 1,701
Thanked: 776 Times

Quote:
Originally Posted by anmol2k4 View Post
Trilix later on designed Tata Nano.
Girish Wagh and his team designed the Nano.
IDEA styled the Nano exterior.
Trilix did nothing.
directinjection is offline  
Old 7th October 2010, 14:52   #14
BHPian
 
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Chennai
Posts: 411
Thanked: 529 Times

Quote:
Originally Posted by directinjection View Post
Trilix is a nondescript design house whose only known output so far has been the Indica Vista, an uninspiring design, to say the least.
Slightly off topic but- I believe the mandate from Tata would have been to retain the original Indica lineage in the car as much as possible. Unfortunately for Tata, carrying forward the old design which looked great at that time but boring now didn't work well to create that 'WOW' factor of an all new car. Tata would be equally responsible for missing an opportunity during it's launch.

Tata understands that it is a VFM player who sells the car based on buyer's mind than heart. So, having a in-house, low cost design house will be very helpful even if they are not going to win any design awards.
pacman2881 is offline  
Reply

Most Viewed
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Team-BHP.com
Proudly powered by E2E Networks