Tata? Agratas? Who/what are they and why should you care?
Just about everybody in Somerset now knows the name Tata. After all, they’re going to build a massive new battery factory here. But who are they? And who are Agratas? Read on....
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Tata? Agratas? Who/what are they and why should you care?
On 19 July Tata announced that they would invest in a brand new battery site to power electric cars. Best of all for readers of Somerset Confidential, it is to be in Somerset. The new investment will be the second biggest in our county since the war. Only the Hinkley C nuclear power station represents a higher value inward investment into our county.
Details are still sketchy. That’s not unusual with an investment of this size. What we do know is the factory will be created on the Gravity Business Park at Puriton just outside Bridgwater. This is on the site of the old Royal Ordnance munitions works.
The total inward investment has been put at £4bn, but as of yet we have few details. The key missing details being how much the UK Government has provided to Tata in financial incentives. We have been assured the information will be made public, but when?
Earlier this week we had a comical exchange with a mandarin at the Department of Business and Trade trying to get a date from them as to when this information would be produced.
From this exchange we gleaned
the government would be transparent
they couldn’t tell us when the data would be released
they couldn’t tell us what details would be released.
Even so we do have the hyperbole to play with. For instance the creation of 4,000 new jobs and many more in the local supply chain. It will certainly be a major boost to the manufacturing sector in Somerset.
We also know that the intention is to build a “40GW battery cell gigafactory.” Which means exactly what? Or should we say Watt? Let’s break it down.
A “gigafactory” simply means a large-scale factory usually in the context of manufacturing rechargeable batteries that go into electric vehicles. 40GW refers to the power output of the total batteries manufactured in a year. An average car battery can be anything from 40kWatts to 100kWatts. If we go for the top end, then 40GW should equate to around 400,000 car batteries a year.
So that’s what we will get. The next big question is:
Who are Tata?
Tata may not be a name that is widely known in the UK but it is one of the world’s largest companies. The company was founded by Jamsetji Tata in 1868 and is still run by family members. Initially trading in cotton over the next century and a half the group has gradually diversified to become a multinational corporation in a dozen business arenas with global ambitions.
However throughout the years the family have managed to hold onto control of the businesses and maintain an involvement with management. Ratan N. Tata was the Chairman of Tata Sons, until his retirement on December 28, 2012, since when he has held the title Chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons, Tata Industries, Tata Motors, Tata Steel and Tata Chemicals.