SsangYong New Zealand

1 March 2011

Iconic Korean car manufacturer SsangYong, who specialise in SUV's and utilities, moved its New Zealand wholesale operation to the Central North Island late last year and is already seeing unprecedented growth.

SsangYong, a Korean car manufacturer that focuses on quality and innovation has recently opened its New Zealand Headquarters and a full service parts and service facility and office in Taupō.

SsangYong New Zealand Chairman Rick Cooper says Taupō is the new home for SsangYong NZ. "It made perfect sense to have our wholesale and lease business based in Taupō with the East Taupō Arterial open and our yard based one minute from State Highway One and central to so many NZ cities."

The new Taupō headquarters in Miro Street opened in December 2010 and has a three acre yard with a purpose built 450sqm parts and services facility. From these premises the SsangYong NZ team will be providing wholesale distribution to its specialist dealer network around NZ and leasing options as well as a dedicated parts distribution service, product accessory development and a state of the art sales and service training facility. SsangYong is expecting to employ up to 15 staff for the Taupō operation.

General Manager Deon Cooper is really excited about reintroducing the SsangYong brand to New Zealanders and says the vehicles are perfect for the New Zealand lifestyle. "These cars are perfect for Kiwi's – they are high-quality, reliable vehicles that provide a second-to-none towing performance – great for towing boats or horse floats. And they are affordable."

Even with the skeleton dealer network SsangYong currently has in place, they are already seeing a significant growth in sales compared to this time last year. In fact, according to January's Motor Industry Association report SsangYong NZ experienced 850% growth last month.

Mr Cooper says the focus for the company now is on developing a high quality dealer network around New Zealand. "We want to ensure a quality experience for SsangYong customers so we are taking our time to select elite dealers to work with, who understand our philosophy."

The Worldwide SsangYong Organisation has had a shaky time during the recession however Mr Cooper says with Indian-based Investment giant Mahindra having purchased a major shareholding of the Korean based organisation, the future of SsangYong has been cemented.

"We feel confident with the knowledge that a significant investment has been made in SsangYong by Mirandra, the preferred bidder by the Korean Government. There has been talk of Mahindra proving financial support for development of new SsangYong models – we are really excited about the future of the brand. "