Tata Motors snaps up Maruti’s Mayank Pareek to boost car sales

Tata Motors Ltd, India's top automaker by revenue, has poached the almost iconic Mayank Pareek from rival Maruti Suzuki India Ltd as it looks to strengthen its passenger vehicle business, where it has never enjoyed a large market share.

Pareek, who as head of marketing and sales helped make Maruti India's biggest carmaker by sales in the last 20 years, resigned in the middle of this month (See: Maruti Suzuki sales head Mayank Parekh quits after 20 years). He will join Tata Motors on Wednesday as president of the passenger vehicles business unit, Tata Motors said on Monday. 

It did not reveal any details of the compensation package.

Pareek's appointment comes as Tata Motors looks to revive weak sales of its passenger cars in India. Apart from the Nano fiasco – the much-touted 'world's cheapest car' bombed in the market ('Cheapest car' tag for Nano a mistake: Ratan Tata)

- sales of Tata's Zest compact sedan, launched in August, have failed to take off (Zest sedan set to lead Tata Motors' fight back).

Pareek worked for more than 20 years at Maruti and was involved in several new launches, including the hatchback Celerio and compact sedan Swift DZire. The company is losing its top salesman ahead of the launch of its sedan Ciaz next month.

"His extensive experience in the passenger car market will play a significant role in harnessing Tata Motors' growth potential to help position the company as one of the leading passenger car manufacturers in India," Tata Motors said in a statement.

Car sales in India, expected to be the world's third-largest car market by 2018, are likely to rise between 5 and 10 per cent this year, after posting a decline for two consecutive years.

Tata Motors has in the past relied on its trucks and buses, as well as on strong sales by its UK-based luxury car arm Jaguar Land Rover, to offset the weak performance of passenger vehicles in the domestic market.