BMW plans to move with the times

BMW Group Australia managing director Stavros Yallouridis has revealed that he is open to radical new solutions to challenges facing the Australian outpost he took charge of seven months ago.

This may even include relocating from BMW Australia’s headquarters of 30 years in the outer Melbourne suburb of Mulgrave to somewhere significantly closer to the city, within the next three to five years.

Such a move, he said, would centralise BMW Australia and bring it both physically and spiritually closer to the dealer network, as well as the brand’s demographic heartland.

The expected huge cuts in travel costs and time would also bring massive economic and environmental dividends that would benefit everybody from BMW Australia employees to the transport industry that delivers automotive components, Mr Yallouridis added.

Speaking to the media in Melbourne at the launch of the revised BMW 6 Series range, the 49-year-old former BMW Greece boss announced that everything about the Australian operations from now on is up for reassessment – particularly in this post-financial crisis climate.

Left: BMW Australia managing director Stavros Yallouridis.

Containing costs while growing sales past the 20,000 unit mark within five years are also rated high on his agenda, as BMW attempts to keep a hard-charging Audi and rejuvenating Mercedes-Benz at bay.

“Knowing we have good product coming in the pipeline over the next couple of years (is important),” Mr Yallouridis said.

“But we have to be a company (all about) sustainability as well.

“So we have to make sure we can survive in the future. And surviving the future means maintaining efficiencies making sure we are in the right location ourselves do we need more people do we need less people do I need to be (situated) on 43,000 square metres of land or can I be in two floors in downtown Melbourne do I need a workshop? “Of course I’m questioning everything. The world fell apart 18 months ago, and nobody ever saw it. There were no books saying ‘By the way, if the world falls apart here’s step one to step 10’ … but there will be a lot of books about that tomorrow.”

Asked if BMW Australia’s reassessment is a direct result of the global financial crisis, Mr Yallouridis said costs all round had been inexorably rising.

“It is quite evident that the costs associated in producing a car are going up, and the costs in providing that car to the Australian public are also going up.

“So wages are going up, power bills are going up, water rates are going up ... so we need to try to have some balance – that’s all I am saying.

“We shouldn’t be too top heavy – we need to have the right amount of people, the right amount of dealers, the right amount of cars and the right amount of growth.”