PERUSAHAAN Otomobil Kedua Sdn Bhd (Perodua) is planning a facilitation scheme worth RM200 million to help strengthen its vendors amid the challenging economic backdrop.
Its president and chief executive officer Datuk Aminar Rashid Salleh said the fund was aimed at helping vendors involved in stamping and interior work for Perodua cars.
He said while it has been a challenging year for the carmaker, next year was expected to be more arduous for all players, in view of the impending implementation of a new tax system, plunging crude oil prices and depreciating ringgit.
Perodua has a network of more than 150 vendors, whom Aminar said have been one of the key contributing factors to the company’s growth over the years.
“We have selected 23 qualified vendors for this scheme and
we expect to start the programme next year,” he said at the official opening of Perodua’s 3S centre,
here, yesterday.
“We want the payment term periods between vendors to drop from 60 days to 30 days and as short as 15 days from next month. More details, especially on the scheme disbursement mechanism, will be revealed next week,” he said.
On the company’s sales target, Aminar said Perodua hoped to sell more than 195,000 cars this year, surpassing its revised target of 193,000.
Perodua had earlier set a total sales target of 197,000 for the year but revised it downwards due to a challenging business environment.
Its market share in the first half of the year has been battered by stiffer competition from the non-national car segment and the tightening of financing guidelines.
For the period, the company registered a lower market share of 28.4 per cent, or 94,500 units, compared with 30.9 per cent in the same period last year.
However, sales momentum started to pick up when the carmaker launched Malaysia’s first energy-efficient vehicle (EEV), the Perodua Axia, which has secured 62,000 bookings to date since its debut in mid-August.
“This is a record for Perodua. We never anticipated such an overwhelming demand for Axia. We have delivered 26,000 cars to our customers,” he said, adding that Perodua was registering an average sales of 20,000 cars a month.
Meanwhile, the RM8.2 million 3S centre is a joint-investment by Perodua and partner Medan Prisma Sdn Bhd.
The centre, measuring 52,523 sq ft, has 25 service bays.
Perodua has 182 sales and 176 service outlets nationwide, of which about 70 per cent are sales and service dealers.