Mercedes-Benz unveiled its biggest workshop and showroom in the world in Abu Dhabi yesterday, the same day it reported that sales in the UAE fell by 20 per cent in the first quarter of this year.
But company executives said they were confident they had made the right choice in building the new facility in Musaffah, with sales of Mercedes-Benz vehicles in the UAE outstripping all markets in the Middle East and Levant region.
Frank Bernthaler, the director of sales and marketing for Mercedes-Benz cars in the Middle East and Levant, said 3,818 cars were sold across the region, a 20 per cent drop compared with the first quarter of last year.
Of those, Mr Bernthaler said about 1,400 cars were sold in the UAE, outselling sales in all other countries in the region.
“We’re down in the GCC in basically all markets,” Mr Bernthaler said at the opening of the Mercedes-Benz centre. “But the UAE is the most important one in terms of volume, and we’re keeping our market share.”
Emirates Motor Company, the general distributor of Mercedes-Benz in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain and a subsidiary of Al Fahim Group, sold 881 cars in the first three months of this year, a 15 per cent drop from the first quarter of last year, said Irfan Tansel, the general manager.
“We were slightly down from last year but we were higher than 2007,” Mr Tansel said.
Car sales across the Emirates have fallen since the fourth quarter of last year, as consumers began to restrict spending and banks increased minimum salary requirements and downpayments for car loans.
But finance was less of an issue for car dealers in Abu Dhabi, said Laurent-Patrick Gally, a retail analyst at Shuaa Capital.
“People tend to have more spending power in Abu Dhabi, and at the same time, given the fact that the local economy has not been slowed down as Dubai has been, that is also reflected in the slowdown of the car business,” Mr Gally said.
Al Fahim Group’s new Mercedes-Benz showroom and service centre covers 93,000 square metres and has more than 250 work bays, in line with the company’s optimistic outlook, said its managing director, Rashed al Fahim. The group is in the final stages of establishing Daimler Finance, a joint project between Al Fahim Group, Daimler and Gargash Motors, to provide its own financing to customers.
Mr al Fahim said Daimler Finance should be ready to provide loans and leasing options by the end of the year.
“The economy of Abu Dhabi is strong and we look forward to the future,” Mr al Fahim said. “It’s only a matter of time before it comes back.”
Abu Dhabi also has investments in the German car maker. In March, Aabar Investments, an Abu Dhabi government-linked company, agreed to buy a Dh9.73 billion (US$2.64bn) stake in Daimler, which owns Mercedes-Benz.
The purchase, which made Aabar the company’s largest stakeholder at 9.1 per cent, is part of the Government’s strategy of developing domestic industry in partnership with well known western brands.
Under the deal, Aabar and Daimler will work together on developing electric cars and new materials for car manufacturing. The companies will also establish a centre in Abu Dhabi to train Emiratis for work in the car industry.
Joachim Schmidt, the president and chief executive of Daimler for central and eastern Europe, Africa and Asia, said the company was happy to have Abu Dhabi as an investor.
Dr Schmidt said Daimler was in discussions with Aabar for future ventures, but he would not disclose details of the projects, or a timeline.
“We are confident that we will find joint projects,” he said in Musaffah. “These are definitely technology-driven projects like electric components for cars, but at the moment it is too premature to say.”
Source: The National Newspaper http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090520/BUSINESS/705209968