Mazda Cebu sales in February on the rise

CEBU, Philippines - After posting lower sales volume for the months of December and January, Mazda Cebu remains optimistic this year as sales are now starting to peak up with February sales climbing up, higher than in previous years.

“February is proving to be a better month than last January and December. Our sales for that period was really low but now its seems that sales are back again to normal,” said Mazda Cebu operations manager Michael P. Bandalan in an interview.

Bandalan said that because of the negative perception of consumers which aroused as effects of the economic crisis, January and December sales was a slowdown.

“People are careful on their spending because they are afraid of what the crisis can bring to their future especially those who are afraid to lose their jobs. But most are just carried away with the negative news,” said Bandalan.

He said that their fleet accounts were the ones badly affected by the negative perception of the crisis because most companies have hold off their orders of new cars for their employee incentives to cut on cost.

Bandalan shared that for December, their dealership lost around 50 percent of their sales target while they lost around 40 percent last January.

“This February, sales are really up because even for the first there weeks we have already met our target. Our sales for this month is 20 percent more compared to previous years. We are surprised with this outcome since the market is still clouded by the uncertainty of the crisis,” he said.

Bandalan said that aside from their sales, another indication that their sales is now better this month compared to the previous two months is the traffic they get in their showroom.

“Last December to January we received only a few visitors in our showroom. There are even days when we don’t get any but now prospective buyers are starting to come in,” he said.

He said that one major problem that is hounding the auto industry at this point is the credit crunch because it has made car loans more difficult to process.

“Banks now are strict with their loan applications because of the crisis. The credit investigation is strict and the approval takes time,” said Bandalan.

He said that in line with further attracting consumers to buy their units; Mazda Cebu has aggressively intensified their marketing efforts despite constraints in their marketing budget.

“In the first two months of this year our budget was more than last year for marketing. At this time of crisis, we have to double up our efforts to attract more car buyers. Its about building market awareness,” he said.

 He said that because times are tough, the market will likely turn towards buying cheaper cars so they gave out subsidies for new car buyers to urge them to purchase their units.— Rhia de Pablo