Despite the Land Rover marque being shifted from German carmaker BMW to Ford Motor Co, the present regional distributorship pattern will still be in place, Land Rover officials said Tuesday.
Matthew Taylor, director of marketing, sales and service, at the inauguration of the full-time 4x4 SUV manufacturer's new MEA head office was quoted by The Gulf News as saying "we will continue to work with our current distributors.”
The new office brings Land Rover's regional sales and marketing team within Ford's Premier Automotive Group (PAG), the 4x4 brand and its stablemates Jaguar and Volvo gathered under the same roof as the American parent. The office, according to the daily, will cover 41 markets in six time zones stretching from Syria to Zimbabwe, and from Morocco to Pakistan. The company also maintains an engineering test base in Dubai to meet the "extreme requirements in terms of temperature and usage".
Taylor said the regional sales target this year was 20 percent higher, at 7,000 vehicles, against projected global sales of 180,000. The GCC is expected to account for 2,000, and the UAE for around 650.
"Subsequent to the marque's entry into the PAG fold, we are targeting the four sectors of people, product, quality and cost as our prime thrust areas," he said – Albawaba.com
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