Volkswagen Group’s Spanish affiliate SEAT has doubled its dealer network to 22 outlets in Russia this year and plans on adding three more by the end of December.
Current outlets are in Moscow and St. Petersburg, plus other major cities such as Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan and Rostov-on-Don.
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President and executive committee chairman James Muir said that the company was looking to open up new markets and added: “We see great potential in markets like Russia.”
At the recent Moscow show, the automaker announced the growth of its product range in Russia with the autumn start of sales of the Alhambra MPV it will sell alongside the Ibiza, Leon hatchback and Altea.
SEAT exports four of every five cars it manufactures to 75 different countries. One of its aims is to increase this proportion by opening up new markets, including China, where marketing began last April.
During the first half of 2012, SEAT saw strong growth in Mexico, up 20% to 10,214, Algeria, up 150% to 5,191 and Israel (+85% to 3,787).
The company has also increased sales in Germany by 8% to 28,404 and the UK, which has risen almost 7% to 19,763.
The brand is currently in the midst of what it calls “an unprecedented product offensive”. It is reintroducing the Toledo line and a redesigned Leon will be added to the Mii (the brand’s version of VW’s up!) and the redesigned Ibiza, already on sale.
Growth in the number of models will enable it to broaden market coverage and provide an optimal basis for continued export growth, SEAT said.
