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Mercedes-Benz Middle East in 'top gear'

Dubai, February 9, 2012

Mercedes-Benz Middle East & Levant today announced that regional sales last year, the company’s 125th anniversary year, recorded the second best performance ever.

The sales touched the highs last experienced in 2008, a statement said.

Revealing the results to media at a press conference held at the Ome-ga Dubai Desert Classic, the luxury German automotive manufacturer also ‘Tee’d-Off’ a strategy to drive the momentum of 2011 sales, brand-ing 2012 both the ‘Year of the SUV’, and ‘Year of AMG’.

Mercedes-Benz’ impressive roster of new models launched in 2011- includ-ing SLK Roadster, C-Coupe, CLS and C-Class Facelift - contributed to the overwhelmingly positive sales, with nearly 17,000 units sold overall in the region.

It was a best year ever for Mercedes-Benz SUVs too, with year on year (YOY) sales up 16 per cent across all models in the range. Highlighting this achievement was Mercedes-Benz’ “S-Class of SUVs” GL-Class, the flagship model growing 93 per cent versus 2010, the company said.

Also celebrating best ever years was the company’s executive E-Class, with both sedan and coupé variant sales up 2 per cent YOY.  The world’s best selling luxury sedan S-Class also came to the fore with another strong per-formance, driven by the strong product offering of the Business Edition and AMG Sports Package options available, the company said.

Across the region, three-pointed star shone brightest in Kuwait and Qatar, posting record results of 40 per cent and 30 per cent YOY, respectively. Du-bai and Abu Dhabi retained their strong market position, with consistent sales performances delivering a 10 per cent increase in sales and accounting for 39 per cent of Middle East sales overall.

Frank Bernthaler, director, sales and marketing, Mercedes-Benz Cars, Mid-dle East & Levant, said: “Driven by Mercedes-Benz ‘Best or Nothing’ mantra throughout our 125th anniversary, we are delighted to congratulate our re-gional distributors’ best ever performances, and celebrate a second best year ever for us in the Middle East. We must thank our regional distributor network for helping to achieve this and underline the importance of compli-ance in everything we do, which has further catalysed our sales success while supporting our long-term goal to achieve profitable growth and higher customer satisfaction.”

The 2011 momentum is expected to continue into 2012, with a regional strategy unveiled by Bernthaler focussing on SUVs and the company’s AMG sports car division to drive sales to new heights.

Dubbed as the ‘Year of the SUV’, the March launch of Mercedes-Benz new M-Class unveiled at the Dubai International Motor Show 2011 is marked as a key to growing market share for the company, and will be bolstered by new GLK- and top of the range GL-Class model launches in later months.

‘The Year of AMG’ represents the other side of Mercedes-Benz’ two pronged 2012 plans. An armada of new AMG models are geared up to tur-bo-charge sales for the company’s high-performance sports car division when they reach the Middle East’s shores. Models include the most powerful C-Class of all time - C 63 AMG Coupé Black Series; athletic and sporty SLK 55 AMG Roadster; dual personality E 63 AMG executive saloon; and 525hp, zero to 100 km/h in 4.8 seconds ML 63 AMG.

This year marks the 60th anniversary of Mercedes-Benz lightweight, athletic and luxurious SL-Class Roadster – the latest aluminium-body version of the ‘super-light’ will be launched in June/July this year. An announcement of an AMG version is expected from the Affalterbach headquarters soon, with a Middle East launch date to be announced shortly afterwards.  - TradeArabia News Service


 




Tags: Middle East | Car | Mercedes-Benz | SUV | AMG |

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