“We had a vision for the company in terms of sales and market share. After six months, those targets had not been met. We mutually agreed to part ways (with Mr Angell),” Solomon Osundwa, a director of Crown told the Business Daily in an interview.
Mr Angell did not answer calls to his cellphone. Mohamed Zubedi, a director and shareholder of Crown, said the firm has already started searching for a new CEO to steer the company which took over the Nissan franchise from DT Dobie last year.
“We are looking for an experienced person with a good knowledge of the Kenyan automotive business,” Mr Zubedi said.
The Crown directors did not say the exact unit sales the new company is targeting. Sales of Nissan pick-ups, vans and cars last peaked at 1,140 units in 2013 under DT Dobie, according to statistics from the Kenya Motor Industry Association (KMI).
This represented a 7.8 per cent market share in that year, a level Crown is hoping to exceed going forward. Nissan is one of the biggest brands in the local pick-up segment, competing against Toyota and Isuzu that are sold by General Motors East Africa.
The transition from DT Dobie to Crown was however bound to hurt Nissan sales which more than halved to 564 units last year, most of which were clearance sales by the former franchise holder.
Mr Zubedi said the firm will soon appoint sub-dealers in Kisumu and Nakuru as part of its efforts to reach out to more customers.
Mr Angell’s stint at Crown is one of the shortest in the competitive new vehicle market. He had helped set up the company, including overseeing investments in a showroom and service centres in Nairobi and Mombasa.
Crown is a joint venture between South Africa’s AMH Group which owns a 51 per cent stake in the company. The remaining 49 per cent equity is held by a consortium of local investors led by Mr Zubedi.
Mr Angell had earlier told Business Daily that he is part of the consortium but Mr Zubedi said the former CEO has never been a shareholder in Crown.
AMH had initially planned to form a joint venture with an existing dealer in Kenya to fast-track the transition of the Nissan franchise from DT Dobie.
Jaguar Land Rover dealer RMA Kenya is one of the firms that had sought a tie-up with AMH. It is unclear what led to the collapse of the talks that saw the South African firm opt to start operations from scratch with the local investors.
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