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Brilliance builds European network
China’s Brilliance Jinbei Automotive has captured a huge early lead over its Chinese rivals in piecing together a European sales network. It has locked up distribution deals in three of the Continent’s top four markets. The fourth is pending.
The automaker has distributors for its BS6 upper-medium sedan in Germany, France and Spain. And in Italy, talks with a potential partner are in an “advanced stage,” says Hans-Ulrich Sachs, managing director of Brilliance’s importer, HSO Motors Europe.
The four countries combined typically account for 55 percent to 60 percent of European new-vehicle sales.
HSO recently secured a deal with Portuguese distributor and retailer Grupo Salvador Caetano to distribute Brilliance models in Spain and Portugal. The group also distributes Toyota models in Portugal and sells vehicles in the Iberian Peninsula and in Angola.
In France, HSO has an agreement with Asie Auto, which also has a license to sell Chinese Landwind models. Asie Auto is run by former MG Rover France executive Elisabeth Young and boasts 140 dealers, many of which used to sell the British brand’s cars.
The backbone of HSO’s European operations is a wholly owned subsidiary in Germany, HSO Motors Deutschland, which aims to recruit around 100 dealers by the end of the year. It plans to double this by end-2008, Sachs said.
Heading to the East
HSO also has signed dealer agreements in Switzerland, Sweden, the Baltics, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Sachs says. In a third phase of its expansion, the company plans to move into Norway, Finland, Austria, Poland and Hungary.
“We have made very good progress in the month since the IAA,” Sachs told Automotive News Europe.
Sachs, whose credentials include launching Korea’s Hyundai in Germany in the 1990s and a stint as head of Volkswagen-brand sales worldwide, says he believes Brilliance can have 700 sales and service centers open across Europe by the end of 2008.
No dealer has yet agreed to open an exclusive store, however. The minimum requirement for a sales point: 22 square meters of showroom space and a ？4,000 investment in signs. The HSO approach reduces a dealer’s risk. But it requires no significant commitment to the brand, either.
“To a certain extent, they take what they can get in order to get a foot in the door,” said Christoph Stürmer, auto analyst at Global Insight office in Frankfurt.
The first batch of BS6s arrived in Germany in March. The aim at HSO is to sell 158,000 cars in Europe by 2011. But in July the BS6 did poorly in crash tests conducted by 11 national auto clubs, including Germany’s ADAC.
Brilliance redesigned 65 BS6 parts. Spanish independent tester IDIADA crashed BS6 prototypes to EuroNCAP standards and says it would get a three-star rating. Sachs says the car will be retested next spring in time to apply for European type approval. “We had a sales goal but we had to scale back,” he told ANE earlier this year.
His new target is 15,000 in 2008, but even that depends on receiving type approval no later than June.
For 2008, HSO plans to launch the BS4 lower-medium sedan in spring, the BC3 coupe in autumn and a small hatchback, the BS2, by the end of the year.
The BS6 is built in a factory in Shenyang, near China’s border with North Korea. The plant, in a joint venture with BMW, also makes BMW’s 3- and 5-series models for China.
The automaker has distributors for its BS6 upper-medium sedan in Germany, France and Spain. And in Italy, talks with a potential partner are in an “advanced stage,” says Hans-Ulrich Sachs, managing director of Brilliance’s importer, HSO Motors Europe.
The four countries combined typically account for 55 percent to 60 percent of European new-vehicle sales.
HSO recently secured a deal with Portuguese distributor and retailer Grupo Salvador Caetano to distribute Brilliance models in Spain and Portugal. The group also distributes Toyota models in Portugal and sells vehicles in the Iberian Peninsula and in Angola.
In France, HSO has an agreement with Asie Auto, which also has a license to sell Chinese Landwind models. Asie Auto is run by former MG Rover France executive Elisabeth Young and boasts 140 dealers, many of which used to sell the British brand’s cars.
The backbone of HSO’s European operations is a wholly owned subsidiary in Germany, HSO Motors Deutschland, which aims to recruit around 100 dealers by the end of the year. It plans to double this by end-2008, Sachs said.
Heading to the East
HSO also has signed dealer agreements in Switzerland, Sweden, the Baltics, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Sachs says. In a third phase of its expansion, the company plans to move into Norway, Finland, Austria, Poland and Hungary.
“We have made very good progress in the month since the IAA,” Sachs told Automotive News Europe.
Sachs, whose credentials include launching Korea’s Hyundai in Germany in the 1990s and a stint as head of Volkswagen-brand sales worldwide, says he believes Brilliance can have 700 sales and service centers open across Europe by the end of 2008.
No dealer has yet agreed to open an exclusive store, however. The minimum requirement for a sales point: 22 square meters of showroom space and a ？4,000 investment in signs. The HSO approach reduces a dealer’s risk. But it requires no significant commitment to the brand, either.
“To a certain extent, they take what they can get in order to get a foot in the door,” said Christoph Stürmer, auto analyst at Global Insight office in Frankfurt.
The first batch of BS6s arrived in Germany in March. The aim at HSO is to sell 158,000 cars in Europe by 2011. But in July the BS6 did poorly in crash tests conducted by 11 national auto clubs, including Germany’s ADAC.
Brilliance redesigned 65 BS6 parts. Spanish independent tester IDIADA crashed BS6 prototypes to EuroNCAP standards and says it would get a three-star rating. Sachs says the car will be retested next spring in time to apply for European type approval. “We had a sales goal but we had to scale back,” he told ANE earlier this year.
His new target is 15,000 in 2008, but even that depends on receiving type approval no later than June.
For 2008, HSO plans to launch the BS4 lower-medium sedan in spring, the BC3 coupe in autumn and a small hatchback, the BS2, by the end of the year.
The BS6 is built in a factory in Shenyang, near China’s border with North Korea. The plant, in a joint venture with BMW, also makes BMW’s 3- and 5-series models for China.
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