The Piaggio Group has formed a new subsidiary for Indonesia to directly import its scooters and motorcycles to the world’s third largest two-wheeler market.
With the new Piaggio Indonesia subsidiary, Piaggio hopes to establish a larger share of the country’s market which bought an estimated 7.4 million scooters and motorcycles in 2010, trailing only China and India. Piaggio had previously been working with third-party importers for its products, but will now enter the market directly, adopting a strategy it followed to large success in Vietnam.
“The starting of Piaggio Indonesia’s operations is a critical step in the Group’s strategy for South-East Asia” says Roberto Colaninno, Piaggio Group chair and chief executive officer. “Based on the model that has been successfully tested in the Vietnamese market, Piaggio will organize its growth in Indonesia through a series of steps: the first, launched today, is the beginning of our local subsidiary’s operations, by creating an efficient commercial organization that allows both for the development of the marketing of our vehicles and for an in-depth study of the Indonesian market in terms of products, customer expectations and prices. In the future, if this market lives up to expectations, the Piaggio Group will establish a new production site in Indonesia to meet local demand.”
Piaggio Indonesia, under the helm of Managing Director Sergio Mosca, will begin importing the Vespa LX125 and LX150 as well as the Piaggio Liberty 150 and Zip 100 scooters from the Vietnamese production facility.
The Piaggio Group plans to form a network of 35 dealers through 2011 with the goal of increasing its network to 150 dealers by 2013.
Press release after the jump.
Harley-Davidson opened its first dealer in China in 2005, they now have four dealers operating nationwide (Shanghai, Beijing, Qingdao and Hong Kong). Harley reported that sales had doubled in China last year and plans to open four new dealerships this year (Wenzhou, Xiamen, Dalian and Chengdu). According to Rodney Copes, Harley’s Vice President of international sales, China is the fastest growing market for the American motorcycle manufacture.