BMW OPENS NEW PLANT IN CHENNAI, INDIA
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Gary Evans,
Friday, March 30 2007
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New Delhi / Munich - Luxury carmaker BMW opened its new 20 million euros ($26,554,000) factory in Chennai, India today. The factory will assemble an array of sporty BMW 3 Series and 5 Series autos targeted at the growing number of young upscale buyers.
This is a signal that the international community expects the booming economy will continue to drive growing demand for automobiles. “According to independent experts, the Indian automobile market will have doubled from its current size of about 1.1 million vehicles by 2010,” said, Dr. Helmut Panke, BMW’s Chairman of the Board of Management.
Looking at India’s population of over 1 billion BMW saw an enormous opportunity. “There is definitely much more potential for growth.” Said Panke.
In addition to its assembly plant for automobiles in Chennai, BMW has a wide range of activities planned for the country including the establishment of a sales subsidiary near Delhi and an aggressive expansion of its dealership network to all metropolitan centers of the country.
The opening up of the Indian market is an important step in the company's expansion plans in Asia. "This marks a further important step in our Asia strategy," said Panke.
 Series 5 BMW
Since 2001, the company has established 11 new subsidiaries around the world including Indonesia, the Philippines, Poland, Denmark, Greece, Ireland, China, Malaysia, Hungary, Malta and Portugal.
The plant in India gives the BMW Group a total of 23 production locations in 13 countries, while its new sales subsidiary takes the number of international sales subsidiaries to 35. This network serves another 120 countries.
While the BMW Group sees the future in China and India, it’s not ignoring the United States, its largest market, which accounts for over 300,000 annual sales. “It would be wrong to expect similar figures from China or India anytime soon,” said Panke. Acting today they hope to insure they’re ready to ride the anticipated growth wave.
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