Alfa needs more legs
Product diversity is the key for venerable Italian marqueAlfa Romeo boss Antonio Baravalle says the iconic Latin brand needs a broader model line-up if it is to prosper.
Baravalle -- who took over the helm from Karl-Heinz Kalbfell in September last year -- told Reuters at the Paris motor show that the company needs "more than two legs to stand on" in order to achieve its ambitious targets.
What are those targets? Chief among them is a goal to double its vehicle sales by 2010 -- and it will need more than two volume-selling models if it's to get over the line.
The brand currently derives most of its sales volumes from the 147 (due to be superseded in 2007/08 by the 149) and 156-replacing 159, while the recently introduced Brera and Spider are essentially niche players.
The company's forecasts suggest it will notch up around 160,000 global sales this year, compared with 137,000 in 2005.
Baravalle was quoted by Reuters as saying: "To have 300,000 (in unit sales), you need four legs. Our priority is to grow by volume."
He confirmed that said Alfa Romeo was working on at least two additional models to take the marque into currently untapped market segments.
One of these is a proposed Mini rival that will be dubbed Junior (read more here) while the other is a crossover-style SUV -- likely to be inspired by the 2003 Kamal concept (pictured).
Fiat Group (of which Alfa Romeo is a part) supremo Sergio Marchionne said in July it was "highly likely" that the loss-making Alfa Romeo would at least break even in 2008.
Baravalle confessed an immediate priority was to eradicate the poor image that Alfa Romeo had earned over the years in the areas of reliability and after-sales service.
"We've got a third-party parts problem. We've got a technical assistance problem. We've got a quality problem. The quality we were able to provide was not of the quality of a premium customer," he said.
"Our aspiration is to compete with BMW. Today, we are not at that level in terms of service and product. We are in the middle of nowhere," he told Reuters.
The company's Australian sales have also been on the slide of late. Alfa Romeo sold just 1572 cars here last year, compared with 1800 in 2004. Its best result in recent years came in 2002, when it sold 2513 cars.
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