Geely to set up 150 Eagle-brand 4S stores in '09

Shanghai, March 26 (Gasgoo.com) Geely Auto is pushing ahead with its Eagle-brand network expansion. By the end of this year, the private Chinese carmaker will set up 150 4S stores for its Eagle series, said Beijing Times today.

"Our major task this year is to complete the nationwide spreading of the Eagle-series sales network," a sales executive of Geely Auto said to reporters. Three of the 150 stores will be located in Beijing.

Geely Auto has its unified standards for building the Eagle-brand 4S stores: the new showroom has a floor space of 600-800 square meters, the repair workshop has 1,000-1,200 square meters, the investment in a store ranges from 10 million yuan ($1.47 million) to 15 million yuan.

In addition, the Geely Eagle dealer / distributor is required to have at least 4 million yuan flowing capital to ensure the normal operation of the 4S store.

Up to now, Geely Auto has released only one model of its Eagle series -- Panda minicar. By the end of this year, the company will launch two more Eagle models: the Panda 1.0L and Eagle Cross.

Geely Auto aims to sell 50,000 Eagle-brand vehicles in 2009, with Geely Panda minicar's sales forecasted to top 30,000 units.