Mazda looks for more growth in Scotland after record year
A cracking performance in December helped Mazda UK to a record year in Scotland with private buyers flocking to the brand in their thousands.
Mazda took more than five percent of the Scottish market in December with sales of 664 units.
Total sales for the year were 6,642 and market share was 3.64 percent, up fractionally on 2008’s share of 3.63 percent. This is well above Mazda’s 2.4 percent share of the UK market as a whole in 2009.
“It’s been a fantastic start for us,” said Calum Watson, Dealer Principal at Glen Henderson Scotland’s newest Mazda dealer. “We started up in September and between then and the end of the year we have had a fantastic performance thanks to Mazda’s strong product range and the dedication of our sales team.”
This sort of performance is reflected in Mazda’s sales to private buyers where volume for the year was up more than seven percent over 2008 and Mazda’s share of the retail market was a very healthy 5.2 percent.
In fact, the sales success had little to do with the scrappage scheme with only 10 percent of Mazda’s sales in Scotland through the Government-backed scrappage scheme against an industry average of more than 20 percent.
“Our success in Scotland is down to the strength and solidity of our dealer network and has been built around our sales to private customers,” said Mazda UK’s sales and marketing director, Mark Cameron.
“I am confident that we will carry on doing well in 2010 and increase our market share because we will be less exposed to the end of the scrappage scheme than some other brands,” he said.
That’s certainly a sentiment echoed by Macrae & Dick in Inverness where Mazda Brand Manager Alan Smith said that scrappage only accounted for between six and seven percent of total sales.
“The products are so good that they are selling themselves,” he said. “New Mazda3 has gone down extremely well while Mazda2 and Mazda6 continue to sell strongly for us,” he said.
To kick off 2010, Mazda is launching a special edition of the Mazda3 – Mazda3 Tamura - in showrooms from 1 February, to join the successful special edition Mazda2 and Mazda6 launched in 2009.
