Kia gives Ateco the slip
Paul Gover
07mar06
KOREA's oldest carmaker has taken control of its destiny in Australia with a $50 million factory takeover and plans to double sales within five years.
Kia cut ties with its previous agent, the Ateco Automotive group, on March 1 and yesterday confirmed details of its new set up and direction.
It plans to lift sales to more than 50,000 cars a year by 2010, and improve from its current position at 10th on the sales ladder, operating from a purpose-built base on the former Ford factory site in the Sydney suburb of Homebush.
"We are making a serious investment in this new operation," Kia Motors Australia chief executive YK Chun said yesterday.
"Our brand is now well established in the top 10 automotive brands in Australia. The Australian market is now a size where a factory-owned operation is part of the global strategy for further growth."
Kia is the junior partner in Korea with Hyundai Motor Company, which bought a 51 per cent share during the Asian economic meltdown and has also set the future direction of the two brands with a shared-model strategy for most of the companies' products.
But Kia has some cars to itself, including the Carnival, which is Australia's favourite people mover, and a different brand position.
Chief operation officer Steve Lotter said: "We are like non-identical twins and we'll develop our separate personalities over time.
"We're currently known as value-for-money, but we want to move to value and innovation. We are small so we've got to be quicker and more nimble.
"We cannot stay cheap-and-cheerful. The Chinese and Indian brands are not far away."
Kia came to Australia in 1997 when the brand was distributed by Itochu, a Japanese trading company. It sold only 7013 vehicles in the first year, but the switch to Ateco in 2000 saw rapid growth and a total of 25,293 sales in 2005.
Ateco has had a wide range of distribution deals over several decades including the rights to Kia and Audi, and now has the business for Ferrari, Maserati, Alfa Romeo and Citroen. It is about to bring Fiat cars back to Australia.
Kia was established in Korea in 1944 and builds more than 1.4 million vehicles a year with more than 35,000 employees worldwide.
Mr Lotter said Kia had aggressive global plans which would be mirrored in Australia, with extra models, more variety and additional choice in the existing model line-up.
"Kia growth must be generated by taking market share from someone else," he said.
"We intend to climb the ladder in Australia from 10th today, because that's what ladders are for."
www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/...18369820%255E664%2C00.html
Zurück
