Six new Suzuki dealers within two years

Suzuki Australia is on the way to 25,000 new-car sales in Australia this year -- another record for the importer. Its market share is growing too, although not as quickly as the company would like -- and part of the problem there is a stretched dealer network. More dealers could deliver more cars and act more directly within local communities to raise the brand profile.

"We are gradually increasing the number of dealers," Suzuki Australia and New Zealand MD, Takeshi 'Tak' Hayasaki told the Carsales Network during the drive program for the Kizashi Sport earlier this week. "We are a little behind [other volume importers], but not 50 per cent. We have probably, compared to [a company like] Honda, maybe 80 per cent."

"The majority of dealers still have other business... In the last couple of years we have [picked up] more Honda dealers... they need other business... but we recognise still that their main business is Honda."

Hayasaki-san (pictured) expressed the hope that those dealers would one day come to see Suzuki as the main game. Honda's current problems in Australia -- a case of overpricing the product, says Hayasaki -- may hasten that. Suzuki General Manager Tony Devers pointed out subsequently that Honda's sales volumes in Australia are still roughly 30 per cent higher than Suzuki's and that his company needed to be careful not to "over-dealerise" and cut into their profits. 

Hayasaki says that Suzuki could extend its reach in rural areas, but there are gaps in metropolitan areas the importer could be filling too. To illustrate, Devers cited Melbourne's eastern suburbs of Blackburn, Box Hill and Doncaster. The nearest Suzuki dealers in a position to service this relatively affluent area are located in Heidelberg or Ringwood -- a good 15-minute drive in either direction. Suzuki's absence in this area is a counterpoint to the very presence of Honda, Kia, Nissan and Subaru, to name just a few. According to Devers, Suzuki is engaged in talks with a prospective dealer for the area. This new dealer will be one of six expected to join the Suzuki stable within the next two years.

The Australian situation for Suzuki is looking positive, but it's been a longer time in the making than in New Zealand, where Suzuki holds six per cent market share and the Swift is reportedly the second-best selling car in the market, after Toyota's Corolla. That's at odds with Australia, where the Swift sells in respectable numbers, but is consistently outsold by Corolla, Mazda3, Hyundai i30 and Holden Cruze -- and that's just in the small-car segment. It's also outsold by large cars and light commercials.

Suzuki as a brand holds around 2.3 per cent of the market in Australia (VFACTS, year to date). One possible reason for that would be the importer's inauspicious start in Australia, handled by different distributors in the various states. Indeed, Suzukis are still distributed by a different company in Queensland.

It's a source of frustration for Suzuki Australia, which handles distribution of the model range throughout the other states and territories of Australia, that the fragmented distribution of the brand in Australia over a period of decades has worked against the company's success here.

But the company has made it very clear that it's not dwelling on the past.

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