Honda on track to meeting sales target for 2012

Honda Cars Philippines Inc. (HCPI) is optimistic it will hit its sales target for 2012.

HCPI president and general manager Tatsuya Natsume said the company was upbeat on the domestic vehicle market, given a growing economy.

As more Filipinos become affluent, the number of potential buyers of Honda vehicles grows, he said.

Despite having made a number of voluntary recall advisories since last year, HCPI is not worried that this will turn away customers. On the contrary, HCPI hopes customers will appreciate the Honda’s business ethics and the premium it places on customer safety, marketing and sales general manager Roberto Y. Ong said.

Sales have not been affected by the voluntary recalls, Ong said.

HCPI’s 2012 sales target of 16,600 units would be 43 percent higher than the 11,611 units sold in 2011, when the company’s supply chain got disrupted by the triple tragedy in Japan (earthquake, tsunami and nuclear incident) and the Asian flooding that hit Honda’s factory in Thailand.

“We expect the market to grow by 2 percent this year and we would like to at least come back to the 2010 level,” Natsume said earlier.

HCPI has sold 5,961 units in the first six months of the year from 6,991 units in the same period in 2011, according to company data. Sales of the all-new Civic started full blast in March and 1,274 units have been sold as of end-June, HCPI said.