After serving a prosperous time with Fiat India Automobile Limited, a Joint Venture between Tata Motors and Fiat SpA, the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of the company, Rajeev Kapoor submitted his final papers to the senior authorities. The statement is confirmed by the spokesperson of Fiat India.
It is believed that the current Vice President and head of Powertrain Division, Gurpratap Boparai, will fill in the shoes of Kapoor. In an conversation with ET, Kapoor told, “The stint was very exciting for me at Fiat India, setting up of facilities and launching two Fiat and three Tata cars starting Jan 2009. I would have certainly loved to see more Fiat cars on Indian roads. I am sure it would happen very soon.”
When appointed as a Managing Director in 2007, Kapoor was the first Indian leader of Fiat in country. Prior to Fiat, he was serving at the position of General Manager and plant head with the India's largest two-wheeler maker, Hero Honda Motors Limited.
Kapoor is also acclaimed as the man behind the JV of Tata Motors and Fiat in India, which made fortunes for the Italian auto giant. However, the sales of JV were not so impressive and witnessed a constant fall since fiscal 2009. In financial year 2010, the venture between two renowned auto makers reported a loss of Rs. 288.69 crore, which was somehow reduced to Rs. 227.04 crore in fiscal 2011. However, in fiscal 2011, at the time when the auto market expanded by 25-30 per cent, the demand for company's vehicles on domestic turf faced a downhill by 15 per cent amounting to 21,066 units.
Following a similar trend in fiscal 2012, the yearly volumes of the JV witnessed a dip 24 per cent with sales of 16,095 units, despite of the fact that the auto maker offered several goodies and freebies ranging from Rs. 50,000 to 1 lacs. On the situation, an industry source, without revealing his identity quoted, “Kapoor had to manage demands of two different boards which might have delayed the decision making and on the other, the support from the headquarters in 2009-10 was also found wanting, with Fiat SpA busy integrating Chrysler, which took away the attention from countries like India.”
