WITH THE new car market recording an estimated 35 per cent rise in sales over the first quarter, Citroën’s new boss in Ireland is hoping to rebuild the brand’s presence on the Irish market on the rising tide of sales.
Thierry Calewaert, managing director of Citroën Ireland, says the brand is planning to increase its overall market share for its cars and van models from 1 per cent to 4 per cent within four years.
In the passenger car market he hopes to achieve a 2.5 per cent market share in that period. The brand finished February with a share of just 0.68 per cent for passenger cars, with 197 new car registrations this year in a market of 28,865 up to the end of February.
It was the first month of operation for the new operation in Ireland, directly owned by the French brand. Previously Citroën’s Irish operations were run by Gallic Distributors, a division of the Gowan Group that holds the Peugeot brand.
Calewaert says new product launches like its C3 and DS3 (pictured) models will hopefully push the brand towards an end of year share of 1.7 per cent in the passenger market and from there he plans to grow the brand progressively. “With 1.7 per cent you cannot sustain a network and it’s vital we get more. We need to be about 2.5 per cent in the passenger car market.”
Unlike his counterparts who have taken control of Irish operations and have started to cut back their dealer networks, Calewaert has no such plans at the moment. “I’m also not 100 per cent convinced that geographic issues don’t play a significant part in the buying process.” Citroën has 28 dealers across the State.
In terms of dealer investment, he says Citroën cannot be too demanding. While the image will be revamped at showroom level, the investments required will not be comparable to the hundreds of thousands of euros – sometimes millions – required from other brands.
“We will make support available and will require some improvements but we are not talking about massive investment – really we can do some nice things with minimal outlay. It’s going to be done in conjunction with the dealers and we’re not interested in putting their heads under water.”
As to why the French firm took over the Irish operations, he says management in France were looking to a growing market share for Citroën in Europe – 6.5 per cent last year and currently the fastest growing French brand in Europe – yet the share was falling in Ireland.
He accepts the bad publicity surrounding price fixing investigations by the Competition Authority damaged the brand. “We have very strict criteria for dealers and we will not tolerate any activity like that.”
Citroën’s sales have suffered a fall-off in sales that has been partly attributed to a discounting policy that created uncertainty as to the firm’s pricing policy. Calewaert says the firm is no longer pursuing that policy. “When a customer buys a car and then a neighbour buys for €2,000 less, it’s not good for the brand. By protecting our prices we also protect the resale values.”