A tipper at a General Motors stand at a Total Motor Show in Nairobi. The commercial and public transport vehicles maker widened its lead over rival Toyota in 2012. Photo/FILE
What you need to know:
GMEA market share increased to 27 per cent last year from 25 per cent in 2011 in a period that saw Toyota’s stake remain at 24 per cent.
The change in market structure has been attributed to a greater demand for commercial and public transport vehicles, which is General Motors forte, compared to saloon cars which are mostly sold Toyota.
General Motors East Africa (GMEA) widened its lead over top rival Toyota East Africa last year in a period that saw new car sales remain flat.
Data from Kenya Motor Industry Association (KMI) — the industry lobby — show that GMEA market share increased to 27 per cent last year from 25 per cent in 2011 in a period that saw Toyota’s stake remain at 24 per cent.
The change in market structure has been attributed to a greater demand for commercial and public transport vehicles, which is General Motors forte, compared to saloon cars which are mostly sold Toyota.
The commercial vehicles segment has been supported by the increased activity in the construction, manufacturing and transport sectors while the saloon division has been hurt by the high cost of cars and the second hand market.
New auto sales rose 1.4 per cent to 12,798 units, which is the slowest growth since 2009 when reduced economic activity due to the post-election and global economic meltdown cut orders by 20 per cent.
General Motor’s unit sales stood at 3,421 last year compared to 3,150 the year before, reflecting a growth of 8.6 per cent an indicator that the flat auto market was linked to sluggish performance by its rivals.
“We had a lot of orders for our Isuzu buses last year. We could not supply all the units in 2012 and the strong order book is keeping us busy in this first quarter,” said Rita Kavashe, GMEA’s managing director.
The saloon car market has in the past five years come under serious attack from imported second hand vehicles, increasing the pressure on Toyota and CMC Motors, which deals in Land Rover, Volkswagen and Ford models.
This saw CMC’s market share drop to 10 per cent last year from 12 per cent in 2011.
Toyota’s sales grew marginally to 3,099 units last year from 2,993 in 2011 while CMC’s dropped to 1,295 units from 1,570 units in the same period.
CMC is the only auto dealer listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE), and the drop in unit sales will pile pressure on the firm at a moment when its business partner Jaguar Land Rover has threatened to give its franchise to rival RMA Group.
Jaguar Land Rover, brands account for 30 per cent of annual unit sales of CMC whose share remains suspended at the NSE where it last traded at Sh13.5.
CMC returned to profitability in the first half ended March 2012 when its net profit rose to Sh383.5 million helped by a Sh450 million foreign exchange gain.
Simba Colt Motors that sells the Mitsubishi heavy commercial trucks saw its market share drop to 12 per cent from 15 per cent as sales fell to 1,582 units from 1,829 units.
Simba Colt has attributed the drop in its sales and market share to inadequate supply of the Mitsubishi trucks, a problem that persisted since 2011 when the source market Japan was hit by a major earthquake.
DT Dobie, which sells Nissan pick-ups and Mercedes Benz luxury cars and trucks, raised its market share marginally to 13 per cent from 12 per cent.
