Skoda Auto, a Volkswagen unit, will seek growth in Russia and large Asian countries to offset sluggish demand in Europe, its head told a news agency on Thursday.
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Skoda increased unit sales 9% to 492,111 last year but the western European market does not offer sufficient growth outlook, its chairman Detlef Wittig told Reuters.
“We are the market leader here and in the central European market, so the first target for us is to defend our position,” Wittig reportedly said following an annual news conference where the company announced its 2005 net profit more than doubled to 7.89 billion crowns (US$328.9 million).
“The second one is to exploit our potential in western Europe, and the third objective is to go for new, additional markets, and the direction is east – the big market of Russia, India and China,” he added, according to the report. “If there is growth in western Europe, and it looks like car demand is stabilising, it’s fine for us, but our direction is to go for the lower purchase power (in the east) and satisfy those customers.”
The news agency noted he did not give sales targets for individual markets.
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By GlobalDataReuters said Skoda makes most of its vehicles in the Czech Republic but has smaller production or assembly units in Ukraine, Bosnia and Kazakhstan and plans to expand its units in India and possibly finalise talks over a Russian plant.
It would also seek to launch production in China by the end of this year, with eventual output of 60,000 cars a year, the report added.
