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Mazda’s Zen moment amid vehicle market turbulence

27th May 2016

By: Irma Venter

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

  

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In a bruised domestic market scrambling for volume, Mazda Southern Africa is having a Zen moment.

Mazda sales in South Africa reached 9 066 units in 2015, almost double the 4 939 units sold in 2014 – this in a new-vehicle market that dipped 4.2% last year, compared with 2014.

Mazda Southern Africa MD David Hughes says the plan was to sell around 8 000 units in 2015.

This year promises even better results.
“We have sold 1 030 units a month on average in the first three months of this year. We have run out of stock.”
The CX-5 sports utility vehicle has grown into one of Mazda Southern Africa’s biggest sellers.
In 2014, 80% of the sales mix were BT-50 bakkies. However, at more than double the volume this year, and with the introduction of a full passenger range, the BT-50 now makes up only 6% of sales.

After officially splitting from Ford in South Africa in 2014, the Japanese manufacturer “relaunched the brand through its refreshed passenger-car range, rather than the BT-50”, notes Hughes.
This is not to say that Mazda Southern Africa is happy with the BT-50’s performance.
“Our task now is to restore the BT-50. It is our Achilles heel. It will, however, never again be 80% of our mix, but rather 10% to 15%.”

The BT-50 is still assembled at Ford’s Silverton plant, in Pretoria, as was the case when Mazda was still under the US manufacturer’s wing in South Africa. (The Ford Ranger and the BT-50 share the same platform.)
However, production for the South African market will move to Thailand when the BT-50 is refreshed later this year.
Hughes hopes to launch the facelifted bakkie in South Africa towards the end of the year, or early next year.
The new-look BT-50 will be repositioned as a more premium, recreational vehicle, rather than a one-ton workhorse.
Importing the vehicle from Thailand will push up the price of the pick-up in the local market, says Hughes.
The Mazda 2 is also sourced from Thailand.

The remainder of Mazda’s product range still comes from Japan.

Many Japanese brands in South Africa have, in the last two to three years, moved from sourcing product in Japan to procuring vehicles from India, which is viewed as a less expensive manufacturing base.
Hughes is confident Mazda will continue to support the African and Australian markets with the launch of a new BT-50 once the current model completes its life cycle – contrary to rumours that production of the pick-up may be discontinued. Pricing
Part of the success of Mazda in the local market can probably be attributed to the fact that the marque’s prices have hardly moved since 2014 – this while competitors increased prices “by 13% . . . 14%”.
However, with the rand’s dramatic weakening in December, Mazda Southern Africa was forced to push up its prices by 5% earlier this year.
“We will always be a value-for-money proposition,” says Hughes.
“We are the alternative to premium. We fall into that small gap below premium vehicles. “People come to us from the bottom and the top, which is a good thing in a market that will most certainly see some buying-down this year.”
The South African new-vehicle market is expected to drop by around 10% this year.
Hughes aims for Mazda sales of 11 000 to 12 000 units in 2016 – another growth year.

“If we can get through the next 12 to 18 months with volumes intact, we will be in a position where every model in our line-up will be renewed in a period of less than 12 months.”

This bodes well for sales expectations over the next two to three years.

Mazda Southern Africa will open another two dealerships this year.

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

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