New businesses that the Tata group entered into over the last ten years now account for almost a quarter of the group's turnover.

At a recent in-house presentation, named Transforming Tatas, it was revealed that the group's turnover for 2001-02 was Rs 45,493 crore (Rs 454.93 billion) out of which, Rs 10,691 crore (Rs 106.91 billion), or 23.5 per cent, came from new businesses.

The group entered into 32 new businesses during the period.

The new segments include: passenger cars, automobile components, telecommunications, retailing (through Trent), tea (through the acquisition of Tetley), and insurance (through the joint venture with AIG).

Also, during the ten-year period the group has exited from 16 businesses including cement, paints, branded white-goods, and computer hardware.

The value of the exited businesses is Rs 2,435 crore (Rs 24.35 billion), says the group. Accroding to the group, its profitability has improved substantially between 1992-93 and 2001-02.

During the period, the group's sales grew at a compound annual rate of 13 per cent.

Exports increased at a 16.8 per cent pace from Rs 1,986 crore (Rs 19.86 billion) to Rs 8,034 crore (Rs 80.34 billion), while profit after tax zoomed at a rate of of 19.5 per cent from Rs 724 crore (Rs 7.24 billion) to Rs 3,598 crore (Rs 35.98 billion).

Its gross block booked a 11.9 per cent CAGR from Rs 13,520 crore (Rs 135.2 billion) to Rs 37,213 crore (Rs 372.13 billion), while the net worth grew 16.7 per cent from Rs 6,252 crore (Rs 62.52 billion) to Rs 25,123 crore (Rs 251.23 billion).

The group also presented the rising importance of brands in its businesses. The share of the brand-driven segments in the overall group sales has risen from 19 per cent to 53 per cent. And the PAT from these segments improved from 20 per cent to 74 per cent.

Some of the leading brands in the group's portfolio include: Indica, Tata Tea, Tetley, Tata Indicom, Tata Salt, Voltas and Tetley, Taj and Titan.

Tata Steel and Tata Consultancy Services its leading industrial brands.