New Delhi: Veteran industrialist Ratan Tata passed away late night on 9 October. This is like the end of a golden era for the Indian business world. Ratan Tata became the chairman of Tata Group in 1991 replacing JRD Tata. He expanded the empire of Tata Group by buying companies one after the other. These deals were not only done in the country, but Ratan Tata also bought many big foreign companies.

Tata Group Empire Bought the British Tea Company

Tata Consumer Products earlier used to do business under the name Tata Tea. In the year 2000, it bought the giant British tea company- Tetley Tea. This deal was done for 450 million dollars. This deal surprised the world because Tetley was twice as big as Tata. After this deal, Tata Tea became one of the biggest tea companies in the world. This was the first time that an Indian company acquired a foreign company. This also marked the beginning of the global expansion of the Tata Group.

Purchase of two major automakers

Tata Motors bought two of the world's biggest automakers. The first deal was done with South Korea's Daewoo in 2004. Tata Motors bought Daewoo's commercial vehicle unit for $102 million. This gave Tata Group advanced truck-making technology. Then in 2008, Tata Motors bought Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) from American automaker Ford. This $2.3 billion deal made Tata Motors a global company in the auto sector.

Deal with two steel companies

Tata Steel increased its dominance by making two big deals under the leadership of Ratan Tata. The first deal was done in 2004, when Tata Steel bought Singapore's steel company NatSteel for $486 million. The second deal was done in 2007. This time Tata Steel bought Britain's Corus Steel for $12.9 billion. This was the biggest deal of its time and it put Tata Steel among the top 10 steel companies in the world.

Check-in at American hotel too

Tata Group's hotel company - Taj Hotels bought America's The Ritz-Carlton Boston Hotel in 2006. The deal was done for about $170 million. This gave the Taj luxury brand an opportunity for global expansion and the company strengthened its dominance in the global hospitality industry.

Purchased Brunner Mond

Tata Chemicals, a chemical company of the Tata Group, acquired Brunner Mond, a British soda ash manufacturer, for 90 million pounds. With this acquisition, Tata Chemicals became one of the world's largest soda ash manufacturers.

Joint venture with Starbucks

Tata Global Beverages entered into a franchise model deal with US-based Starbucks. It was a joint venture. This allowed the Tata Group to launch Starbucks outlets in India and enter the fast-growing coffee retail market.

Acquisition of BigBasket

Ratan Tata retired in 2012, but he remains the Chairman Emeritus of the Tata Group. The Tata Group acquired Big Basket in May 2021. Tata Digital bought a majority stake in Big Basket. This cleared the way for the Tata Group to enter the e-commerce sector.

Made Air India ours again

Tata Group has an emotional relationship with Air India. It was started by JRD Tata in the 1930s. But, it was nationalized in the year 1953. In the year 2022, Tata Sons bought Air India for Rs 18,000 crore. Then the chairman of Tata Group was Natarajan Chandrasekaran and Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata.