After leading the company’s UK business through a major transformation programme, Bimlendra Jha, CEO of Tata Steel UK, is taking up a new role at Tata Steel Limited in India, with the leadership of the UK business returning to its former structure.

Bimlendra was appointed CEO of Tata Steel UK in April 2016 at which time he spearheaded a transformation programme to develop a more sustainable UK business. He also oversaw the successful divestments of non-core businesses, including the Long Products Europe and Speciality Steels businesses. This enabled the company to focus on its core pan-European strip products business with its steelmaking hubs in Port Talbot, UK, and IJmuiden, Netherlands.

Prior to that, he led a successful change programme at Tata Steel’s Long Products Europe business – turning substantial losses into profits and putting it on a credible improvement path which resulted in its sale in May 2016.

With the non-core divestments now complete and the transformation programme in place, the leadership of the UK operations will revert back to Hans Fischer, CEO of Tata Steel Europe.

Hans Fischer said: “I would like to express my gratitude for Bimlendra’s contribution to Tata Steel in Europe and especially our UK operations – both in the transformation programme he launched and the successful sale of a number of non-core businesses.

“The transformation of our UK business continues and we will maintain the same degree of intensity with which it has been managed to date in order to further develop its sustainability.”

The leadership change will take effect from 1 January 2019 when Bimlendra begins to dedicate his time to developing and executing a strategy, which will help Tata Steel India to ramp up its growth plan in the Long Products business.  Bimlendra will remain as a board member of Tata Steel Europe until his return to India on 1 April 2019.

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For further information: Damien  Brook on T. +44 (0)7951989490 or damien.brook@tatasteeleurope.com

About Tata Steel’s European operations

Tata Steel is one of Europe's leading steel producers, with steelmaking in the Netherlands and the UK, and manufacturing plants across Europe. The company supplies high-quality steel products to the most demanding markets, including construction and infrastructure, automotive, packaging and engineering. Tata Steel works with customers to develop new steel products which give them a competitive edge. The combined Tata Steel group is one of the top global steel companies, with an annual crude steel capacity of 27.5 million tonnes and more than 65,000 employees across five continents. The group’s turnover in the year ending March 2018 was US $20.4 billion.