Nano can sell in seven digits, says Caparo chief Angad Paul

New Delhi: Speaking to the media on the UK-based Caparo group's plans to supply sheet metal and vehicle frames for the Tata Nano, due to be commercially launched later this year, Swaraj Paul's son and CEO of Caparo said that the Nano can sell in seven figures in India alone.

Paul said that despite the Nano being the world's cheapest car it would offer enough margins to component suppliers and added that he would have to increase the companies' sales 10-fold and enhance margins.

A key vendor for Tata Motors' Nano project, Swraj Paul-owned Caparo Group, is setting up a Rs120-crore facility at Singur in West Bengal to supply sheet metal and vehicle frames for the Tata Nano which is to be commercially launched later this year. The company has already invested Rs83 crore in an auto ancillary unit in Noida that makes parts for Honda.

Though already operational, this plant was formally inaugurated by Brown at a function in the capital.

The Caparo Group has lined up an investment of Rs 1,000 crore in India, mainly in automobile components. The company has already commissioned 19 plants in the country while nine more are in the pipeline. It is supplying components to Maruti Suzuki, Honda, General Motors and JCB. 
 
With the Tatas having already unveiled the Nano at the ninth Auto Expo in New Delhi, component manufacturers have to gear up to meet the Nano deadline, Paul, said today.

Speaking at a function where visiting British Prime Minister Gordon Brown inaugurated the group's auto part manufacturing unit, Paul said the Caparo Group would raise its investment and exposure in India to achieve an over six-fold increase in turnover to $1 billion within the next ten years.

He further added that the group was growing fast and was keen on making continuous investments in India.