“Small and medium-sized enterprises have a high growth potential on the Romanian market. Overall, SMEs account for around half of our clients, while individuals make 30%. Our target now is to reach 45% of total cars sold by Porsche Romania,” said David Gedlicka, CEO Porsche Finance Group Romania.
The company finances the purchase of Volkswagen vehicles.
The number of SMEs on the local market rose in the past four years, from 437,000 in 2011 to over 500,000 this year. David Gedlicka’s bet for the local market envisaged going beyond 10,000 cars financed by Porsche Finance amid car market growth and rising sales of Porsche Romania.
“In 2013 I said we would finance 10,000 contracts in 2014 and everybody said I was too upbeat. However, by yearend, we will go beyond this value, from 8,530 contracts last year,” said Gelicka.
In the first 10 months of this year, Porsche Romania, the importer of Volkswagen, Skoda, Seat and Audi brands in Romania, sold almost 17,300 vehicles, according to data provided by Automotive Manufacturers and Importers Association (APIA), up 27% from the year-earlier period.
The highest financing percentage for Porsche Finance is for Volkswagen’s light commercial vehicles, of 58% of sales. The second growth driver for Porsche Romania are sales of used cars through the internal arm of Porsche Holding, Weltauto.
“We already want to grow now on the segment of used cars as well, where we already have 49% of sales. Moreover, there are also companies that buy used cars”.
For 2014, Weltauto sales are put at 7,000 cars, from 5,900 in 2013, the highest level so far. Additionally, while only 58,900 new cars were registered in the first ten months of this year, the number of used cars registered in the same period topped 181,000.
(English version by Catalina Apostoiu)