Mitsubishi on 2010 upturn
March 15th, 2010 by Richard Aucock
2009 sales may have been down by a quarter but Mitsubishi sales and marketing director Toby Marshall is upbeat.
‘Scrappage wasn’t the number one priority.’
The focus of 2009 was different. Dealer profitability was the new goal, achieved via two major initiatives. First Mitsubishi took away the traditional dealer costs, so that training, brochures, IT and so on, were absorbed by the importer. It made a big difference.
Then individual targets were re-jigged so that it became easy for dealerships to over-achieve and ramp up the bonuses. It incentivised the smaller dealers – and the majority are still family run enterprises – though the low priority given to scrappage meant Mitsubishi sales paled next to Hyundai.
The decision – an understandable one – was that selling thousands of Colts at a £100 margin wasn’t good for business long term. Indeed the factory had already scaled down production which meant over-supply wasn’t the issue it might have been anyway.
Today, the biggest volume come from the L200 which takes 28% of sales, though the Colt isn’t far behind. Demand for the pickup remains strong from agricultural businesses, but sales to the building trade are down, not surprisingly. The Shogun isn’t the volume seller it once was, but Outlander does around 2,000 units a year.
Sales of the Lancer are improving. This lower-medium family car sector is important in the UK with private buyers, and though Mitsubishi doesn’t have the massive marketing budget of rivals, more focus is going on the Lancer in 2010.
And the Lancer-derived Evo? 80 of 118 outlets are Ralliart dealers, but the recession plus Focus RS and Nissan GTR haven’t been kind to sales of playthings like the Evo.
Yet with dealership numbers constant, the forthcoming ASX compact SUV, revised Shoguns with X5 levels of emissions, and tonnes of profitable accessories to sell to L200 buyers, a Mitsubishi dealership is, the importer maintains, a business still of much value.
By Peter Burgess
Tags: mitsubishi, sales, scrappage