Ford Motor Co., which is in talks to acquire Daewoo Motor, may extend its marketing and distribution support to the South Korean company to help strengthen its share of the Western European auto market, The Wall Street Journal’s interactive edition reported Friday. The plan would help Daewoo establish a broader dealership network in European nations where it is weak, the report said.
Though Daewoo is strong in Eastern Europe, it is hardly a factor in the more prosperous and highly competitive West.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
The South Korean company sold only 108,184 cars from January to June, giving it 1.3% of the overall market, the report said.
“We have a lot of distribution capacity, we can help logistics like order processing,” the report said quoting Ford of Europe Chairman Nick Scheele as saying.
Though the plan to add the South Korean company to Ford’s European portfolio seems odd at first glance, there is plenty of room for low-cost brands like Daewoo below Ford’s own line of so-called Blue Oval brand cars, the report said.
The European Ford boss said that because the number of European consumers opting for low-priced new cars rather than buying used vehicles is increasing, the mid-range car-makers are coming under pressure from luxury makers such as Bayerische Motoren Werke AG and DaimlerChrysler AG’s Mercedes-Benz, the report said.
