Audi Canada Inc. has plans to nearly double its market presence in the Lower Mainland in the next two years.
Earlier this year, company president and CEO Martin Sander paid a visit to Vancouver to explain how he plans to get more affluent Lower Mainlanders behind the wheel of his luxury German vehicles.
During an exclusive luncheon at the Shangri-La Hotel downtown, Sander revealed that the car company, which is a part of the larger Volkswagen Group, would open two new dealerships in Metro Vancouver in 2012.
One of the dealerships will be located on Burrard Street at Second Avenue in Vancouver, an area that’s fast becoming the city’s luxury car district.
The second dealership will be located in Langley.
Both represent a combined $27 million investment, and build on the three retail locations Audi already has in the Lower Mainland.
The Dilawri Group of Companies, which operates Bentley, Aston Martin and Porsche dealerships in Vancouver, will attach its name to the new Burrard Audi.
Bill Sie of Gold Key Volkswagen in Surrey will run the new Langley Audi.
Business in Vancouver sat down with Sander during his visit to ask him about the expansion, the Audi brand and competing with the likes of BMW and Mercedes-Benz on the West Coast.
Because it is one of the biggest car markets in Canada, one of the biggest luxury markets. It has a very large, affluent customer base and that’s why, as a luxury brand, we need to be successful in Vancouver.
We are in the process of building the brand and building our organization across the country. You can’t be strong in each and every part of the country at the same time. Traditionally, we have been very strong in Montreal.
One reason is many years back our headquarters was located in Montreal. We see nice development and improvement in Toronto as well.
Originally, our three dealerships in Vancouver and the Vancouver market did a fantastic job in building the brand, but as we are growing, as the city is growing, we clearly have the need to ramp up our organization in order to keep pace.
Five years ago [Audi] Canada was basically run out of the U.S. So part of the organization was combined with Audi of America. Back in 2008, we founded Audi Canada Inc. as a separate independent entity reporting directly back to Germany to Audi AG, so we have a dedicated team only looking after the Canadian market. I think it’s an important prerequisite really to capitalize on the huge potential in this market.
When you look at Vancouver, [with] the ocean to the west, mountains to the north, the U.S. to the south, there’s only one direction in which the city can develop and grow. That’s why I think in the long run having a representation in the Surrey/Langley area is a very, very important strategic point.
This is a very, very big luxury market. In this area around Burrard Street, the downtown core and further to the west, there are many affluent customers who drive luxury cars. Having a dealership in this area allows us to increase our market share and have a better presence where our consumers are.
Now that we are separate in the partnership and we are growing in volume, not at all. What we’re also seeing is that the brand-exclusive stores are more profitable than the [combined] brand stores. That is, of course, the main argument for dealers to invest in brand-exclusive facilities.
The luxury market is huge and customers have different interests and different expectations. I think we are offering a very special and distinct product position and brand position focused on outstanding technology, outstanding performance and progressiveness.
We have many, many concepts [that] are leading when it comes to smaller engines with turbochargers delivering the same driving pleasure, the same performance with significantly lower fuel consumption.
Audi is the leader in terms of TDI clean diesel, which is a fantastic technology to improve fuel efficiency and at the same time to improve driving pleasure. Lightweight technology is another area where Audi is leading and where we can provide another clear customer advantage because less weight means more performance.
We haven’t and we’re not planning to use the finance rate or the lease rate as the main reason for a customer to buy, so we don’t want to sell over price. I think we have fantastic products and we have a great brand story and the strategy is to use these two pillars to create demand.