Speaking at a press conference to announce the opening of Concorde Motors in the Capital on Tuesday, Concorde Motors' managing director Steven G Foster said, "The Rs 100-crore joint venture will endeavour to assist customers to get more out of their dealerships; service deliveries to the customer will be critical and will dictate the success of any operator in this competitive environment".

Concorde Motors is a joint venture between the Tatas and $2-billion Hong Kong-based Jardine International Motor Group. The Tatas hold 50 per cent equity stake in the venture through Telco, Tata Finance and Tata Industries and the balance is held by Jardine.

Concorde Motors has been set up with the objective of establishing a retail network for the sales and service of Telco's passenger vehicles through its network in Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi, Ludhiana and Lucknow. The company plans to spread its network to 12 cities in the next 24 months.

Besides, Telco is also planning to roll out upgraded versions of its utility vehicles -- Estate and Sierra. The new Sierra will have an increased power of 137 bhp.

"Our operating processes have been engineered to build a better business by getting closer to our customers", Foster said.

"We are also looking at the option of dealing in second-hand vehicles after some time," Concorde Motors general manager AK Seth said.

Though the initial investment in the joint venture is Rs 100 crore, the company will invest an additional Rs 50 crore by 2001.

With its entire network in place, the company plans to sell over 25,000 passenger vehicles in the first year of operations. It, however, does not intend to foray into retailing of Telco commercial vehicles.