Strong sales results in Middle East is par for the course at Mercedes

Sometimes, it takes hitting the bottom to find a way to crawl back up to the top.
For Mercedes, 2008 was a record year for sales in the Middle East. Then the financial crisis hit, and the German brand - like all car makers in the region - took a big hit. But Mercedes learnt from its hardships and changed the way it sold cars to rebound to its second-best year in sales last year, selling almost 17,000 units in the GCC and increasing its UAE's sales by 10 per cent to remain the area's largest market, at 39 per cent overall share. And the change in fortune was no fluke.
The Mercedes-Benz Middle East team hosted media last week at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic golf tournament - an event co-sponsored by Mercedes - at the Emirates Golf Club. Overlooking the 18th hole, amid a constant flux of golfers coming and going, Frank Bernthaler, the director of sales and marketing for Mercedes Middle East, described the differences between Mercedes' approach before and after the financial crisis.
"How the business was done in 2008, it was very demand driven," he says. "We sometimes surprised ourselves; what is going on with the market?
"In 2011, the main reason for our success now is that we have new products. But it also has to do with efficiencies we are gaining in our distributor networks. We have improved after-sales services, so we are doing much more for customer satisfaction. We are much more aggressive with fleet sales; we want a good share of that business. And, you can only do that if you have a professional used-car business, so on that side we're making big steps in the right direction. And that also helps new-car sales.
"I think we came out of the crisis much stronger than anyone else."
Worldwide, last year was the company's best year ever, with 1.63 million cars sold. Here in the UAE, Bernthaler expects to see a record year for the region, with double-digit sales growth in 2012, and part of the reason for his optimism are the new products that are either here already or are on their way, offering a wider range of Mercedes for just about every market segment. A new GL SUV is expected to be a sales leader; the new C63 Black Edition has already sold out even before any of the cars have arrived in the country; and, to capitalise on the SLS victories at the Dubai 24 Hours race, the company is planning an SLS GT3 special edition (no performance upgrades are planned, though, just a paint-and-sticker job, but specific to the Middle East). Soon, the revised A-Class will arrive to compete with the BMW 1 Series and Audi A1, while a bit further off, the new B-Class is expected to rival the BMW X1 and the Audi Q3 crossovers. This year is also the 60th anniversary of the SL model, which Mercedes will also try to capitalise on.
New car sales have been strong, but Mercedes is also focusing on its pre-owned market. Sales were up 22 per cent in the UAE last year over 2010. "In the western market, you usually sell one car new, one car used," says Bernthaler. "Here's it's been four to five cars new, and one used. That has many reasons, one being that that market has been neglected. That is changing, and that's why we now work with the Proven Exclusivity brand; we offer everything you'd expect from a Mercedes-Benz, even though it's pre-owned. From a sales point of view, we're growing strongly, and this year will be a strong year."
But the biggest growth for Mercedes globally in the coming years will be in China. Perhaps most surprisingly, Bernthaler says the company will open one dealership in that country every week for the next five years.