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Two major news came out of Volkswagen Group Malaysia (VGM) on 6 June 2014 – there’s a new Managing Director at the helm effective 1 July and announcement of an 18% increase in conventional outlets by end of 2014. Mr. Weiming Soh, Executive Vice-President of Volkswagen AG and President of Commercial Operations Greater China/ASEAN today outlined several strategic initiatives taking place. Among them are:-
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- Mr. Christoph Aringer, who was appointed earlier this year as the Managing Director of VGM for his retail expertise, will be returning to his native Austria due to unanticipated personal circumstances. Mr. Aringer will be returning to Porsche Holding where he is previously from.
- Mr. Armin Keller will be the new Managing Director of VGM. During the past 3 years, he was the Executive Director for Volkswagen ASEAN sales operations. Mr. Keller brings to Malaysia more than 25 years of Volkswagen senior management roles, including extensive ASEAN and Malaysia sales and marketing experience.
- Volkswagen is following up on previous collaborative discussions with the Malaysian Government to investigate the export of Volkswagen vehicles assembled in Malaysia to meet the growing demand in the region.
- on-going VGM dealer network expansion to provide greater accessibility and convenience for our customers in Malaysia, will see the current total of 38 conventional outlets grow to 45 by the end of this year.
- VGM is now pioneering additional strategic and innovative channels such as lifestyle dealerships, Volkswagen brand stores, and potential light-house flagship centers, which are all being actively investigated.
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“This quantitative, qualitative and innovative expansion of our dealer network will provide new business development opportunities, step-by-step, for our investors, dealers and automotive related sales and service providers” explained Weiming Soh.
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“Volkswagen is in full ramp-up mode in Pekan employing state-of-the-art technology such as the only advanced laser-welding equipment in Malaysia to assemble cars which are structurally stronger, and as a result, safer. With a highly trained and skilled Malaysian workforce, we are assembling a wide range of Volkswagen vehicles,” indicated Mr. Soh.
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“In the near future, to address our growing sales and to further improve customer satisfaction, we are establishing a state-of-the-art Technical Competence Center featuring up to 40 bays in a 9000 square meter facility. This facility will provide the latest in all areas of training, in order to bring the very best to our Malaysian customers”, announced Mr. Soh.
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More dealers will certainly help elevate some of the stresses faced by the current network and hopefully can help speed up the warranty claims processing. The Technical Competence Center should weed out inept mechanics who opt for ‘quick-fix’ short-cut repairs and improve efficiency of the service bays. Hopefully they will spend considerable time in training the front desk service advisors too.
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As for Mr Keller, a big warm welcome to Malaysia. It was unfortunate that Christoph had to endure so much in his short tenure here over an event that has been boiling over for years but now that he has taken the brunt of the firing, we all hope that you’ll continue to show commitment in ensuring continuous improvement in the area of product and service quality as well as reliability and durability of the brand. And that’s coming from a VW owner.
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