Dubai: Strong gains expected to come through in Saudi Arabia will compensate for the slowdown in automotive sales in some of the other Gulf markets, according to Nissan’s top regional official.

The Japanese automaker recently confirmed a second dealership for the kingdom as it tries to clawback marketshare. This and the additions to its sales and after-sales network should result in the share going up to 9.5 per cent from 5.2 per cent.

But the UAE continues to be the top volume market for Nissan, having achieved 60,000 units in the 12 months to March 31, 2016. It is projecting similar numbers in the current financial year too for a marketshare of 15 per cent.

“With two partners now, the brand’s potential is huge in Saudi Arabia,” said Samir Cherfan, who heads the regional operations. “It’s clear that Nissan’s overall growth will come from Saudi Arabia this year. We have fixed the problems we had there.

“Nissan is directly handling distribution there and we should soon be appointing a managing director solely responsible for the kingdom.”

It was in 2013 that Nissan appointed a new dealership — Alissa Auto — there after realising that its retail and on-the-road presence could do with some drastic improvements. The network roll-out has continued since and will gather pace with the second entity — Petromin — joining in. This followed a vetting process that involved as many as 24 applicants.

Tightening marketplace

Meanwhile, Cherfan said that no effort will be spared to ensure that its Gulf dealerships will not be caught with an inventory pile up in a tightening auto sales marketplace. “The average (stock inventory) period would be about 3.5 months and goes up or down depending on the market. It’s slightly on the higher side now for everyone, but the drop down to the average can be managed,” the official said.

Meanwhile, Nissan M.E. confirmed it is in sync with the five-year (from FY-2015) volume and marketshare growth expectations, with percentage gains of 50 per cent and 25 per cent respectively. “This places the region level with the US, China and Japan in terms of top priority markets,” said Cherfan. “And our regional volumes are dominated by sales of core models such as the Patrol, which was another priority for us.

“In the past five years, we managed to achieve 70 per cent of sales through core models.” The gains were led by the Patrol, up by 235 per cent, and available in multiple variants such as Platinum and the Nismo, and the X-trail, by 440 per cent during these five years.”