Hyundai dealer turns to fleet operators for more business
Published:Wednesday | September 25, 2019 | 12:16 AM
Nearly four years in, Hyundai dealer Magna Motors Jamaica is claiming the number-three spot for new cars sold in Jamaica and is looking to grow its share of the market even further by concentrating on corporate fleets.
It’s not a new line of business for the company that entered the Jamaican market in late 2015, but it wants to sell more vehicles in the segment and will be showcasing a new Hyundai model befitting the purpose at an event in October.
Magna said that it sold 650 Hyundai vehicles in Jamaica last year and wants to grow that by around 10 per cent this year.
Extrapolating from Magna’s market share, the volume of new cars sold across the market would have been more than 7,200 last year.
“We’re now number three in the market, and we’re not satisfied with that. Our nine per cent is just behind second-placed Honda, at 14 per cent, and Toyota, at 30 per cent,” said sales director Etus Collman. “Recall that when we started in 2015, we were not even on the map,” he said.
So far in 2019, the company has sold 452 units of the 720 vehicles targeted for this year, Collman said.
Magna expects its plan to deepen penetration of the fleet market to bear fruit in the short to medium term. The company recently delivered a batch of 50 Hyundai vehicles to Island Car Rentals, said the sales director, and is looking to do more deals with other businesses in the tourism sector.
Meanwhile, construction of the new Hyundai showroom at Oxford Road in New Kingston is slated for completion by September 2020. Through the US$20-million investment, Magna will double showroom space from five to 10 vehicles, Collman said.
The October launch of the Hyundai fleet service will be used to update customers and fleet managers – inclusive of public and private-sector clientele – on the dealership’s projects.
“We want to look at upcoming developments at Magna, like our new showroom and our services, and we will be unveiling a vehicle that I’m sure these clients will be interested in,” the sales director said.