General Motors South Africa boasts the highest increase in sales volumes for 2010 as revealed in the latest NAAMSA sales results. December marked six months of sustained growth for GMSA with sales up 41% compared to the first six months of the year, a market leading performance.
“NAAMSA reported 39 504 vehicle sales for December to take the total for the year to 492 956, agonisingly close to the magic half a million units for the year,” said Malcolm Gauld, GMSA’s Vice President of Sales and Marketing.
Gauld attributes GMSA’s phenomenal sales growth of 41% in the last six months of 2010 to the company’s introduction of new and refreshed products to the market.
“As the focus moved away from corporate and fleet sales towards a higher number of sales to private buyers, GMSA’s dealer sales grew to 4 657 units in December, the best month for the company in 2010. This also represents a 43% increase in total sales vs December 2009 – a great achievement when viewed against a total market improvement of 29,6% for the month. In 2010 sales through the GMSA dealer network increased by 33% with the company total, including direct sales, up 26% in a market that grew by 24,7%. This gave us a market share of 11,2% for the year. This was a satisfying performance that saw GMSA able to record a gain in market share for the year,” continued Gauld.
On the product front, 2010 saw GMSA expand its passenger vehicle line-up with a spread of new vehicles across the small and medium segments. The all-new Chevrolet Spark caused a stir, as did the Chevrolet Cruze as it expanded into the diesel sedan segment. The all new Opel Astra which was introduced into the South African market shortly after its European launch was nominated as a Car of the Year finalist by the South African Guild of Motoring Journalists.
In the light commercial market the Chevrolet Corsa utility continued to dominate the half-ton segment. In December GMSA delivered a total of 1 559 of these vehicles, the best monthly performance in 2010 for this model and one that took its unbroken segment leadership to 69 months.
Looking ahead into 2011 Gauld expects to see a less fragile market possibly capable of achieving double digit growth for the year. “The continued strength of the rand and interest rate stability, perhaps even a little more downward pressure on rates, will play an important role in assisting the government to keep inflation under control to relieve pressure on consumers. This is certainly filtering through to the market. Reports from vehicle finance institutions indicate that while the number of applications for finance might not have grown substantially the quality of the applications has improved in recent months resulting in a higher approval rate.”
“For GMSA the pressure is on to continue to outperform the competition and provide the highest levels of product and customer satisfaction across all aspects of our business. During the past year our product range saw a number of welcome additions. There is a lot more excitement to come in this area in 2011. Our product line-up will certainly be one to watch as we continue to build the Chevrolet, Opel, and Isuzu brands in South Africa” said Gauld.
Alan Straton
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