Schmidt: BMW's arrival not triggered by our performance

Michael Schmidt, the general manager of Automobile Bavaria, the BMW dealer in Romania, says the direct arrival of major global carmakers on the domestic market has to do with the fact the market has exceeded a certain sales threshold and EU integration has generated a stronger economic stability.
“It’s not a mere coincidence that DaimlerChrysler, BMW Group, Citro?n or Honda arrived this year. The domestic vehicle market has exceeded a certain sales threshold and, moreover, Romania joined the EU in 2007, which entails greater economic and legislative stability. Each carmaker has a critical mass of sales on a market indicating the moment it should get directly involved in boosting sales, and the threshold in the case of the premium segment is of around 2,000 units,” Schmidt explained.
BMW Group opened an office in Romania this month to coordinate, starting July 1, import activities as well as the other operations. Automobile Bavaria, the importer of BMW in Romania until now, will be in charge of such operations as fleet sales, sales to diplomatic personnel and activities related to the import of BMW motorcycles.
Automobile Bavaria, with turnover worth above 100m euros in 2006, owns 95% of the BMW distribution network in Romania, with the only dealer outside the company being a firm in Iasi. All the dealers beside the Iasi-based one are directly or indirectly controlled by Automobile Bavaria.
BMW distribution network now includes 13 locations countrywide.
“Automobile Bavaria has become a BMW dealer, but things will not change as far as customers are concerned.
This is a simple reorganisation of the producer, which wants a uniform distribution structure in Europe.
The arrival of BMW Group is not a decision triggered by our lack of performance, but a decision made by BMW’s board,” stated Schmidt.
BMW Group and Automobile Bavaria will have a strategic partnership for the domestic market.
The importer’s office will not be active commercially. In all the countries of the region, there will be such an office controlling dealers.
Since the beginning of this year, the world’s top carmakers have opened offices on the domestic market.
DaimlerChrysler Automotive Romania and Honda Trading were joined by BMW Group and Citro?n.
In the first four months of this year, BMW sales advanced by 19.1% against the same period of last year.
“Growth estimates for 2007 have already been beaten. BMW sales growth in Romania was also triggered by the expansion of the premium market. On the premium segment, the Romanian market boasts a much bigger growth potential than that of Western Europe. In the following years, we will sell 20,000 BMWs against a population of 20 million inhabitants (…),” said Schmidt. In 2006, a number of 1,656 BMW cars were sold domestically.