TIL Ltd (TILL) was promoted by a Group of Scotsmen led by R T Wilson in 1944, as a dealer of Caterpillar Tractor Company, US, for their earthmoving equipment and spare parts. In Nov.'55, it became a public limited company by the name Tractor India. It was renamed as TIL, in 1985, after its amalgamation with Spundish Engineers. In 1960, it floated a new company, Coles Crane India, in collaboration with Coles Crane of UK, for the manufacture of India's first mobile crane at Calcutta. Subsequently, this Company was merged with TILL in 1976.
The Company is engaged in manufacturing and marketing of a comprehensive range of material handling, lifting, port and road construction solutions with integrated customer support and after sales service. The Company has two manufacturing facilities - Kamarhatty and Kharagpur in West Bengal. The business is organized into three major segments i.e Material Handling, Construction Equipment and Power Systems etc. Overall the Company's products and services are termed as Materials Handling Solutions (MHS).
In 1984, as a part of the diversification, the company acquired through merger, a unit manufacturing process equipment for supply to the chemical industry. TILL manufactures and markets mobile cranes of 10 MT to 100 MT in diesel, electric and hydraulic versions and also markets earthmoving equipment of Caterpillar and Hindustan Motors, for northern and eastern India. In Nov.'93, it came out with a rights issue to meet fund requirements for modernisation and to augment the long-term working capital requirements.
The company has a technical collaboration with Grove Europe, England, for the manufacture of higher tonnage cranes. It has entered into an MoU with Marubeni for marketing its products and has also entered into a technical collaboration in 1995-96 with Boss Group, UK, to manufacture and market a total range of Forklift Trucks.
The first Rental Store was launched in 2005. It opened its second Rental store in Bhubaneswar in line with the Company's strategy for development of the rental business in 2007.
During FY 2010-11, the dealership business of Caterpillar comprising Construction and Mining Solutions and Power Systems Solutions carried out by the Company was demerged as a going concern and vested in the wholly owned subsidiary of the Company viz., Tractors India Private Limited (TIPL) through a Scheme of Arrangement. And resulting to the said Scheme, TIPL issued 44,89,430 Equity Shares of Rs 10/- each at a premium of Rs 203.48 on every share aggregating to Rs 95,83,96,000/- to the Company as the Purchase Consideration.
In 2010, the Company opened a new factory at Changual, West Bengal and commenced first phase production.