Mitsubishi rings in the changes

MITSUBISHI Motors Australia has plunged to sixth place in the new car sales race at the same time as its senior sales and marketing staff are reshuffled, and the company’s advertising contract has been put up for review.

The smallest of the local manufacturers fell behind importers Nissan and Mazda in January with sales of the stalwart Magna, Lancer and Mirage all diving.

"At the end of the day we are disappointed we didn’t do better but our view is it is early days and we will pick up the ground as the year progresses," said MMAL spokesman Charles Iles.

Mr Iles blamed the poor January result on the quiet fleet market hurting Magna and a December sales campaign pulling Lancer/Mirage registrations forward.

As the sales slump came to light it was also confirmed that executive vice-president sales and marketing Bill Pike had departed the company and returned to Melbourne for "family reasons".

Mr Pike was hired into Mitsubishi by company boss Tom Phillips in early 2002 from Toyota Australia, where he was divisional general manager export and logistics.

"This is not related to the sale performance of the company, I just think Bill wanted to go back to Melbourne," said Mr Iles.

Around the same time was national marketing manager Richard Emery changed position and is now regional manger for South Australia and Western Australia.

Mr Pike’s responsibilities have been split between general manager marketing Graham Fairhead and general manager national sales Jim Morgan with company boss Tom phillips in an overseeing role, while Mr Emery has been replaced by Paul Unerkov.

Mr Iles said the various dramas did not warrant renewed speculation about the future of the company as a local manufacturer.

"We’ll be there, it’s going to be hard work and we all know that," he said.

Just 835 Magnas and 67 Verada luxury models went out dealer doors in January, compared to 1551/109 in December and 1008/121 12 months ago.

There were 904 Lancers sold in January and 298 Mirages, compared to 1490/808 in December and 1663/562 12 months ago.

Overall, Mitsubishi sold 3799 cars in January for a 5.9 per cent market share, compared to 5218 and 8.5 per cent per cent 12 months ago.

If all that wasn’t bad enough, export Diamante sales in the US belly-flopped from 14,352 to 9174 in 2003.

Mitsubishi is preparing a re-specification of the Magna/Verada range to counter its sales slump. The company has also revised its sales expectation for the TL/KL versions of the veteran model downward from initial sales forecasts of 2500 per month.

But it faces a long fight with the controversially restyled car to keep sales going here and overseas until the all-new Magna arrives in the second half of 2005.

This year MMAL will be boosted by the arrival of the all-new Colt, Grandis people-mover and the high performance Lancer Evo VIII.

MMAL is also undertaking a formal review of its advertising agency arrangements, with a decision expected in early March.

The review covers Mitsubishi’s core brand, customer relationship management (CRM) and retail communications requirements. Media planning and buying is not included.

Invited to make full creative presentations at the end of this month are incumbent Young & Rubicam Adelaide, Lowe Hunt Sydney and Clemenger BBDO Sydney.