Mazda sounds sales caution

MAZDA is not expecting a return to the boom time sales of the mid-to-late Noughties in Australia in 2010, as the economy is still in recovery mode and some sectors are still hesitating.

This is despite record March sales of 94,744 units, while the first three months’ figures were ahead of the same period last year by 38,857 vehicles, or 18.2 per cent, to 251,827 units.

But the Japanese company intends to grow its sales and market share and reclaim the number-four spot that it recently relinquished to a hard-charging Hyundai.

According to managing director Doug Dickson, while the business end of the new-vehicle market is showing strong signs of growth as a result of healthy first quarter 2010 VFACTS figures, the numbers include a spill-over of deliveries as a result of orders taken in the dying days of the federal government’s tax rebate plan, which ceased on December 31, 2009.

Consequently, Mazda will not reveal where it predicts the total new vehicle market will stand at the end of the year, at least not until the results of the next couple of months come through as the true indicators of sales activity in 2010.

“If you look at the first quarter is still quite distorted from the deliveries carryover from orders taken last year, so it is anybody’s guess where the market will end up this year,” Mr Dickson said.

“What we do know is that private buyers are still a little bit out of the market. There are more business buyers there.”

Left: Mazda Australia managing director Doug Dickson.

With 21,114 registrations to the end of March, Mazda sales are up by about 10 per cent but market share has slipped 0.5 per cent to 8.4 per cent, trailing Hyundai by 99 units. Both are within striking distance of usurping Ford from the number three spot.

Asked if making Mazda number three in Australia ahead of Ford is his main goal in 2010, Mr Dickson indicated that his company was working to a plan and that it was sticking to it.

“In the end, we have a plan, we have a production schedule, and that’s where we are going,” he said.

“We don’t have a war room with maps to mark the movements month by month (but) we have asked (them – Mazda’s sales and marketing team) to take care of fourth position because we want it back.

“Largely we have set out our plans for the year and we are working our way through it, and so we don’t necessarily worry too much about what other people do.

“(Exceeding 80,000 sales) is our plan – that’s what we have told our dealers to achieve … and where that means we end up at is anybody’s guess. Part of that plan does mean to be at a certain position in the marketplace.

“Our plan is to use the production that we have been allocated to create a maximum profit for our shareholders, to ensure that our dealers have a good living, and above all to keep faith with our customers. If we do all that and we end up in a certain position then that’s fine.

“And you must remember that we – like everybody else – are not in a position to react quickly to changes in the marketplace.

“We are sticking to our plan that involves steadily increasing our market share and our sales as new products come to the fore, and we will continue to do so."Mr Dickson said he also believed that Toyota’s recent recall woes and resulting negative publicity was largely an overseas phenomena, not really causing Toyota buyers to migrate to Mazda in Australia.

“We’re not seeing an awful lot of reaction in the marketplace to that. I’m not sure it has affected our markets as much as it has other markets overseas … it’s very hard to gauge.”