SsangYong shares sales stake with Barbagallo

SsangYong will trade under a new name and organisational structure in Australia and New Zealand this year, to be known as SsangYong Motor Australasia. Along with the new name the company has restructured its pricing and specification for the entire SsangYong range (see separate story here).

SsangYong's existing operations in Sydney will be headed by Kiwi Russell Burling, and will operate under an alliance between Burling and the Barbagallo Group in Western Australia. Burling will act as Managing Director while Vince Barbagallo joins as Company Director.

The Barbagallo Group distributes high-end auto brands from Osborne Park and Cannington, and took on the SsangYong range four years ago making the "switch into a more affordable market".

Despite its concentration in WA, Burling believes the alliance with the Barbagallo Group will allow SsangYong to take "a truly national approach as well as tremendous knowledge and expertise in the retail sector".

"It will give SsangYong the resources to build the brand across the country," says Burling.

Burling says the range specification and pricing overhaul will help SsangYong make gains in the fleet market, which he believes the company has not properly exploited. The company will also reappraise its entire dealer network.

According to SsangYong the company is undergoing a major restructure worldwide, headed by parent company Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation's (SAIC) desire to develop the brand's "traditional" SUV and peoplemover interests and later introduce passenger cars.

SAIC's passenger car potential is supported by the prospect of its use of the buyout of MG Rover, which it now shares with Nanjing Automotive in a deal struck last December (more here).

SsangYong will be the SAIC group's "premium brand targeting mid to upper levels of the market".

"SsangYong will remain its [SAIC's] SUV manufacturer and probably its export arm," says Burling.

According to the Burling, SAIC has no intention in the short-term of exporting SsangYong-built passenger or indeed Chinese-built cars with its own and the Roewe badges.

"SsangYong is looking at building passenger cars on a similar platform to Nanjing [utilising the Longbridge plant] but they will be built in Korea," says Burling. "We won't get SsangYongs made in China, at this point."

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