When the Great Wall factory first decided it wanted its brand back, the local distributor admits to being a bit shocked.
Ateco NZ chief executive David Smitherman says the company wasn’t looking to offload its brand Great Wall, but when the factory wants it back, there aren’t many options.
Ateco will relinquish the Great Wall brand to a Melbourne-based factory office, Great Wall Motors Australia, from July 1. All New Zealand and Australian dealers will do business through an Australian office.
Smitherman takes a philosophical view of the brand’s return to factory control, even considering the six years of growth that helped it become well-known in New Zealand.
“What can you do?” he asked AutoTalk this afternoon. “It was surprising, but these things happen.
It will hardly be left out in the cold though, with Foton already pulling its weight and the big RAM trucks set to dwarf New Zealand’s current crop of big-selling utes.
Smitherman admits that its recent work picking up the sales pace and profile of its Cummins-powered pickup, the Foton Tunland, has been a focus.
“March was the best month that Foton has had here,” he says, “and sales are continuing to rise, especially the dual cab 4×4, which is our most popular model.”
Smitherman says that central Bay of Plenty has been a particularly good area for the Tunland as has Invercargill. As a fairly young brand in the workhorse market, many sales have come from other-brand conquests.
And while he says these aren’t converts from any particular nameplate, there’s a Chinese brand that Ateco’s sales staff might take aim at.
“Oh, I wouldn’t mind taking a few sales from them,” Smitherman laughs. “We’re growing faster than expected and sales are improving all the time – we can’t really ask for more than that.”
Great Wall Motors Australia will share its office with its sister SUV brand Haval. Managing director Parker Shi said in a statement that the company will be launching a new ute later this year and that the factory clawing back its brands in both markets is the beginning of a new era
“As demand for utilities continues to grow, Great Wall Motors decided now was the time to take the brand to the next level by establishing a direct OEM presence here.”
Shi said full weight of the companies resources would deliver solutions customer and dealer issues.
The line-up will be headed by a 4×4 turbo diesel matched to a six-speed manual transmission, Borg-Warner torque on demand intelligent four-wheel drive system and Eaton differential lock. It will also feature ESP and six airbags as standard equipment.
This upcoming vehicle will launch in Q4 of this year in Australia, but it’s not yet known when New Zealand’s dealers will get stock.
Great Wall’s ‘direct OEM presence’ is seemingly still a stretch for New Zealand-based dealers, with aspirations to open a local office, but no actual plans or timeframe to do so.
Great Wall spokesman Andrew Ellis admits that there are issues around having no direct local contact.
“They [dealers] do like to have a face they can trust,” says Ellis, who acknowledged that a large portion the dealer network has a long-term relationship with Neville Crichton-owned Ateco.
He says that the new regime may come as a surprise to some dealers.
“We’re in discussions with them, but it’s at a fairly early stage.”
“We are really starting from scratch in New Zealand.”
Several years of brand-building by Ateco with Great Wall does mean “scratch” comes without the tough task of introducing a new brand to an already bustling automotive market.
Ellis says the factory puts the Great Wall carpark here at 5500 vehicles, and Shi’s earlier statement said 45,000 between Australia and New Zealand.
He agrees that there could potentially be a clash between Crichton’s brands and Great Wall.
The name brand already had an obvious rivalry at the low-cost end of the pick-up market with Foton, but downplays the likelihood of issues with Great Wall’s blinged-up Chinese SUV brand Haval selling on the same yard as Jeep.
“But multi-brand dealerships are quite common,” says Ellis.
He wouldn’t elaborate on Haval’s potential entry into the New Zealand market, aside from noting that it “fits with the expansion of the Haval brand globally.”
Premium-pitched Haval’s Australian momentum suffered a humiliating blow earlier this week when its flagship model, H9, failed to get a five-star rating from ANCAP.
