|
When Joerg Hofmann arrived here five years ago, the German brand was an also-ran on the local market. It trailed its direct established rivals BMW and Mercedes-Benz by significant margins, had a lacklustre dealer network and little brand awareness among premium buyers.
But Hofmann, 42, is credited with re-invigorating the brand and tackling BMW and Mercedes head-on. This year Audi will sell around 11,000 cars, up substantially from 3500 in 2004. It is on track to grow by 20 per cent this year in a new car market that is down about 10 per cent.
"We are really in a very good position," he said.
Hoffman, who leaves Australia next month to become managing director of Audi AG's retail group in Germany, makes no apologies for his straight-shooting business attitude. "From my perspective I was sent down to get the Audi Australia business under control," he said."I would think that it's not too bullish and its fair to say that this mission has been accomplished. Over the last five years we've tripled sales, we tripled market share. I think we have 60 months of record sales in a row, which is amazing."
Audi's whole dealer network has been restructured and improved with around eight new showrooms scheduled to open next year. This week Hofmann admitted for the first time his cut-through approach was all part of a calculated plan to push Audi to the forefront. "It was always part of the strategy," he said.
"We had to create awareness for the Audi brand either way. "Five years ago the brand was not perceived anywhere either on the customers or competitors side. "And you have to start talking about the brand in order to get awareness. It was part of our plan to talk about Audi and our future more offensively. It would have totally backfired if it didn't work. But I was confident it would work, and of course it worked better than we thought."
Hofmann is happy with Audi's local sales volumes today but says the company could go to 15,000 to 17,000 sales comfortably by 2013. Its key rivals BMW and Mercedes sell about 17,000 and 18,000 passenger cars and commercial vehicles a year. However, he said Audi would not chase luxury car sales leadership at the expense of brand image and exclusivity.
"I would rather leave it about 15,000 cars a year and not stretch us further purely for volume sake," he said. "I know the other German brand (BMW) has announce plans that they want to go to 20,000 cars. I believe you should think about these things because a premium brand needs to have a certain degree of exclusivity."
By contrast, rival BMW Australia is aiming to lift sales to 20,000 cars by 2015. At that level Hofmann believes it is not sustainable to chase volume at the expense of profits."If it happens, it just happens at the expense of price, discounting and image," he said.
Hofmann said his Australian experience was the best time of his life."But I need a new professional challenge," he said. The opportunity to lift Audi sales in Germany was too good to bypass as it is still the biggest market for Audi worldwide, ahead of China.
As retail MD, he will be in charge of 2000 staff and a market six times bigger than Australia. Audi in Germany is the number two luxury brand behind Mercedes-Benz with BMW in third spot.
Hofmann said he will take some Australian traits back to Germany, including a passion for Jimmy Barnes music and a dog called Sydney. "Hopefully I can bring back the dry Aussie humour, which I like very much," he said.
"Hopefully it makes the Germans a bit more relaxed when I come over and be confronted with them again. But after five years of being here, you have to be careful because you can lose a bit your German way."
Hofmann's replacement is yet to be announced but it will be an executive from German headquarters.
|
