Calcutta, Aug. 24: Tata Group will rise over politics to invest in Bengal if there is prospect, chairman Cyrus Mistry suggested today.

"Bengal has a special part in our heart and history and we will always look at the state as a place to grow. However, the opportunities here have to show themselves and when it shows, we will take the decision irrespective of the political environment," Mistry said.

His statement at the 53rd annual general meeting of Tata Global Beverages Limited (TGBL) on Wednesday, his annual date with Calcutta, suggested politics over Singur would not cloud the judgement of the salt-to-software conglomerate.

The Tatas had to move out the near-complete Nano factory from Bengal to Gujarat following Trinamul Congress-led protests over land acquisition. After coming to power in the first term, the Trinamul government decided to take over the Singur land through a legislation which the Tatas have challenged in court. The matter is pending in the Supreme Court.

"From our perspective in Tata Group, we are clearly apolitical. We don't partake in politics," Mistry replied to a shareholder's question.

"TGBL is based in Bengal, so what is the future plan of investment in Bengal. Politicians may come and go but business will be stable here. So, you should do the business without any politics. So, I request you to do business in Bengal," Manoj Gupta, the shareholder, said.

TCS, India's largest software firm from the Tata stable, has a sizeable presence in Bengal. It has recently developed a special economic zone in Rajarhat, employing the largest number of people in the private sector in Bengal.

However, the Tata Group supremo is yet to meet chief minister Mamata Banerjee or attend her annual investment jamboree after taking over the reins of the $103-billion conglomerate in December 2012 from Ratan Tata, who personally took initiative to build small car factory in Bengal.

GST and Brexit impact

TGBL is expecting an inflationary impact of the goods and services tax (GST) regime on the coffee and tea industry.

"The GST regime will soon be applicable to our Indian operations. Our initial view is that GST would have an inflationary impact on our coffee and tea business as they have a low tax incidence. The industry body is making representations for a favourable rate as tea is a widely consumed beverage cutting across various economic strata," Mistry told shareholders, adding that tea as a product has to be looked at carefully. "There will be some short-term impact, while the long-term impact will be significant on the industry as a whole," he said.

Speaking on Brexit, he said, "UK's exit from the European Union is expected to pose some risks in trading and buying, which might cause an inflationary impact in some of our businesses."

Tea and coffee business

The beverage company plans to focus on the green and specialty tea category and strengthen its core business of black tea.

"In India, there is a huge potential to grow the tea business although globally the black tea business is going under a lot of strain in different markets and we are actually growing our alternative segments in these markets," said Mistry. "The Indian associated companies, mainly in the tea plantation business, have also been adversely impacted by wage divisions and production disruptions," he said.

On the coffee business, Mistry said, "We need to take a bolder step with coffee and as a percentage of our total production portfolio it has to increase. We will largely look at organic but also inorganic ways of growing that."

Chinese operations

On TGBL's Chinese business plans, Mistry said, "We have had challenges in our operations and we continue to have challenges there. We will take a call on the business in the coming years. It is significantly a B2B (business to business) business and not a consumer one." He added, "The Chinese venture is something that we will be looking at restructuring, in what way is yet to be seen and we are exploring multiple options."

In 2007, TGBL had formed a joint venture with Zhejiang Tea Import and Export Company of China to manufacture and market green tea and other value-added products.

Mineral water plans

On the water business, the chairman said, "We believe that there are challenges and we are now looking at a different strategy going forward. The sales have not been significant in Himalayan. It still continues to lose money but there is a significant top-line growth. Now we need to translate that into bottom-line growth as well."

Focus on e-commerce

The Tata company is keen on exploring the e-commerce platform to boost product sales.

"We are seeing emergence of alternative channels and e-commerce platforms and the company is looking to tap these segments. For this, we will have some interesting products," said Mistry.