Japan’s Nissan puts up new sales unit in PH

Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. (NML), Japan’s second largest automotive company, has established a new Philippine unit that will serve as its national sales company starting early 2014.

The move is expected to further enhance the local market’s awareness of the Nissan brand.

In a statement, NML said it had formed Nissan Philippines Inc. (NPI) through a new joint venture with long-time partners Universal Motors Corp. (UMC) and Nissan Motor Philippines Inc. (NMPI).

The new company has capital of 1 billion yen (or $9.8 million), with Nissan holding a 51-percent stake, while UMC and NMPI controlling 24.5 percent each. UMC and NMPI will remain the producers of Nissan vehicles in the Philippines.

“This is an important milestone for Nissan. With NPI now as the unified voice of Nissan in the Philippines, we will be bolder and more proactive in expanding our business in this market. We look forward to continuing to build our presence in the Philippines through this new partnership,” said Takayuki Kimura, regional vice president for NML.

” We will introduce new and exciting products into the market and strive to improve total customer experience,” added Kenji Naito, the newly-assigned president of NPI.

NPI, to be headquartered in Manila, will be responsible for strengthening the branding, marketing and sales strategy, and dealer operations in the local market.

NPI intends to reinforce brand and sales power by broadening the product lineup and strengthening sales and services across the country.

Nissan’s new Philippine unit is part of the Japanese carmaker’s strategy to drive growth across the Asean region.

A key target of its Asean mid-term plan is to more than triple sales across the region to 500,000 units and corner at least 15 percent of the market by the end of 2016.

Nissan further added that it considered the Philippine market an “important component of this plan, and the establishment of NPI is an illustration of the company’s commitment to the Philippines.”

Operating with about 236,000 employees globally, Nissan sold more than 4.9 million vehicles and generated revenue of 9.6 trillion yen ($116.16 billion) in 2012.