JEDDAH, 17 May 2006 — The market share of General Motor Corp. has doubled in the Middle East in the last two years, according to Terry Johnsson, managing director of GM Middle East.
He said that 2004 and 2005 were record years in terms of sales. “Business is growing very fast, through April this year we were up another 22 percent versus same year to-date 2005.”
General Motors’ sales in the region rose by 28 percent in 2005. The company continued this strong performance in the first quarter of 2006, posting its 29th consecutive record month in March and finishing the three-month period 22 percent up on the same period in 2005.
He said that the industry had been hesitant in the first few months, but the overall picture was pretty good, adding that GM had enough strength by having a wave of new product launches.
General Motors has enjoyed record sales in the region in recent years, culminating in an all-time high of 113,000 vehicles sold in 2005 he said. “The GMC and Chevrolet’s Tahoe, Yukon and Suburban represent about 40 percent of our total business in the Middle East, which amounts to about $3 billion a year.
Johnsson, was speaking to the Arab News on Sunday, during a test drive event of GM’s new line of SUVs, which took place in Abu Dhabi.
The Middle East is an extremely important market for GM in general and for sales of our full-size SUV range in particular.
“That’s why the launch of our all-new Chevrolet and GMC full-size SUV family has been so eagerly anticipated by the press, public and GM dealerships across the region. We are confident they will all be impressed by the power, refinement, off road capability, versatility and safety of the new models.”
GM’s line of smaller cars has been instrumental in fuelling its growth in the region with the Aveo and Optra performing particularly well while long time favorites Caprice, Suburban and Yukon continue their traditionally strong performance. Research suggests a high proportion of the new sales are “conquests” over Toyota, Ford and Nissan.
