Mazda marks tough year with record market share

For Mazda Motors UK, 2008 was its second best year on record for total sales and its best ever market share, despite the difficult trading conditions. In December, the company also overtook Nissan to become the third best-selling Japanese brand behind Toyota and Honda for the second time in 2008.

Mazda's sales in the month of 2,174 units were 8 percent up on December 2007, while the year as a whole was the second best on record at 50,402, only two percent down on the record set in 2007.

“Historically, December is not a strong month for us,” explains sales director Mark Cameron. “Our financial year ends in March and typically our December market share is around 1.5 percent. To get to two percent in a market that was down 21 percent is an achievement of which we can be very proud,” he says.

Full year passenger car market share was 2.3 percent, another record, and ahead of the 2.1 percent record in 2007. Mazda’s strong performance was helped by a full year of Mazda2 with 13,000 sales; previous Mazda2 sold no more than 4,400 in its best year.
“A very high proportion of those Mazda2 sales were to genuine private buyers,” says Cameron, which helped Mazda boost its retail sales to 55 percent of its total. “We’re significantly outplaying the industry where the retail mix is 48 percent,” he explains.

Cameron believes Mazda will hold its own in 2009 and maintain its 2.3 percent market share, which would mean sales of around 42,000 cars, with an all new Mazda3 due on sale in the spring, a full year of Mazda’s acclaimed new 2.2-litre diesel engine available, as well as improvements to Mazda2 and an upgraded Mazda MX-5.

“We are predicting a market down to around 1.8 million in 2009 which is slightly lower than the majority of industry forecasts. With economic indicators varying week to week at the moment no one knows for sure, but I would rather plan for the worst and hope for the best,” he adds.

“Our manufacturing flexibility means that if the market does recover, we can quickly meet increased demand. We are doing all we can in partnership with our dealers to stimulate customer interest and maintain December's sales momentum.

A very strong marketing programme with attractive customer offers has just been launched and, coupled with the recent VAT reduction, I believe now is actually a very good time to buy a new Mazda."