I’m certain that by now you’ve seen Kia fashions being offered alongside Mazdas and Xpengs at sure Bermaz showrooms throughout Malaysia. It is because the corporate has hitherto held the distributorships for all three manufacturers, and because it already has an intensive Mazda vendor community – and since some retailers should not in a position to justify the additional outlay of constructing a separate Kia showroom – the three in any other case unrelated manufacturers are pressured to sit down alongside one another underneath one roof.
After all, Bermaz isn’t the one firm doing this. Stellantis Malaysia operates shared showrooms for Peugeot and Leapmotor, though these two firms are underneath the identical umbrella, in order that’s no shock. Maybe extra contentious is Stellantis’ tie-up with Cycle & Carriage, with not less than one outlet promoting each Peugeots and Mercedes-Benzes. That may’t be good for both model’s positioning.
Effectively, Kia has now taken over the distribution of its personal model underneath the Kia Gross sales Malaysia (KSM) banner, and the nationwide gross sales firm’s managing director Emily Lek has made it clear that the mixed-brand mannequin won’t be allowed underneath the brand new regime. That is regardless of her welcoming present sellers to enroll and proceed promoting and servicing Kia fashions.
“It’s fairly clear in our settlement [with Bermaz] that Bermaz sellers shall be taken out [of our network]. On the identical time, we’re additionally rationalising our community; there are some sellers that do wish to stick with us, and naturally we’ll be speaking to them.
“Proper now, Bermaz has shared branding [at its dealers] and that’s one thing that we received’t enable, so it’s actually about discussing with them on how they’ll rebrand in the event that they wish to preserve a Kia dealership,” she stated.
Lek added {that a} principal-led mannequin will allow the Kia model to have full focus by way of gross sales and aftersales efforts. “Prefer it or not, as an [outside] distributor, I can usher in a number of manufacturers; I’ll give attention to whichever automotive that makes me worthwhile. The model loyalty [for a distributor] could be very totally different, [compared to] a automotive firm coming in by itself,” she stated.
The clear break from Bermaz implies that KSM isn’t following the association made by sister firm Hyundai Motor Malaysia (HMY), through which the earlier distributor Sime Motors continues to be a significant Hyundai vendor.
Nonetheless, similar to HMY, KSM will proceed to assemble its CKD automobiles regionally on the Inokom plant in Kulim, Kedah, by way of Kia Asia Pacific’s different subsidiary Kia Malaysia (KMSB). Both method, KSM might want to kind out its vendor community fast, as it’ll take over distributor duties beginning January 1, 2026.
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