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Mr Peter Schwarzenbauer grins when you ask him about the slowdown in Europe and how it will affect his company's car business. It is, admittedly, not the most appropriate question considering that his employer, Audi AG, is among the top global premium brands which actually grew nearly 20 per cent in 2011.
Mr Schwarzenbauer, who is Member of the Board of Management, believes the current setback in Europe is actually a huge opportunity for Audi. “If you rely only on the European market, you run the risk of running aground especially during a crisis. If you look at the bigger picture now, it is imperative to have a strong footprint in the whole Asian region, especially India and China,” he told Business Line .
Audi reported growth of over 35 per cent in the Asia-Pacific region during 2011 and 42 per cent in South America. Western Europe saw sales increase by 11.5 per cent while North America was, likewise, 17.3 per cent higher. “Contrary to what people think, I do think the US will continue to be a strong player economically,” Mr Schwarzenbauer said.
Audi is now ‘preparing different scenarios' because nobody really knows or can predict what will happen, especially in Europe. Hence, a ‘prudent company' has to necessarily work on different assumptions and scenarios.
“Yet, we are probably one of the few carmakers, or the only one, which still predicts that we will continue to grow in 2012. We are quite confident that while we have the right (product) portfolio in the market, we are also adding products which will give us the tailwinds against any storm,” Mr Schwarzenbauer said.
From Audi's point of view, the situation is actually a lot better than what it was 10 years ago when its roadmap was virtually all Europe. Today, it is well and truly an international company.
“We have around 100 designers for our wonderful cars and these people come from 35 different countries. You just cannot imagine the kind of dynamics within this group in terms of the discussions, languages and backgrounds. We believe we have the best looking cars in the world as a result of all this,” he said.
Big driver
Audi is a big driver within the Volkswagen group and this will be the case going forward too. The shift is rapidly happening to markets where it is not so strong in terms of volumes. In India, Audi has targeted sales of 50,000 cars in 2020, ten times the present number. Russia and China are, likewise, critical markets while South America promises a lot too.
The company has focused on the top-down approach in India since its entry here nearly five years ago. The strategy was to first position the brand at the top before slowly going down. “We have a strong brand pull which is our business model against the push option,” added Mr Michael Perschke, Head, Audi India.
According to him, India is a dynamic society which will play an important role for the German carmaker over the next two decades.
“The young generation, especially those returning from overseas, wants more and their fathers are handing them over the reins of the business a lot faster. This is quite unlike the past and today's global Indian has a different mindset,” Mr Perschke said.
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