Peugeot Motors South Africa recently changed its name to Peugeot Citroёn South Africa as part of an initiative to better serve the needs of both brands on the loca market. With a change of ownership status for Citroёn in South Africa at the end of last year, Citroёn (and Peugeot) is now also a wholly-owned subsidiary of PSA Peugeot Citroёn.
The new entity, dubbed Peugeot Citroёn South Africa (PCSA), will operate as separate business units, while enjoying economies of scale and logistics that come from amalgamation. Both marques will retain their distinct identities in the marketplace and will offer local customers two distinctive product ranges. In addition to the resource sharing set to take place at head office level, there will also be benefits for franchisees, who can now share facilities such as workshop and parts warehousing at dealer level. As such, 10 new Citroёn dealerships have already opened at existing Peugeot ‘Blue Box’ facilities. Showrooms will, however, remain very much independent in terms of corporate identity. A further five Citroёn dealerships will also be opened by March in what should hopefully provide a shot in the arm for after-sales service quality for both barnds.
On the back of this development, both Citroёn and Peugeot are preparing for a wealth of new models in 2010. The Peugeot stable will see the addition of the 3008 crossover vehicle, followed by the distinctive RCZ sports car and 5008 MPV.
New Citroёn models heading our way include the C5, C3, and eye-catching DS3 as part of a refreshed model range by mid-year. “Existing and future Citroёn owners! can look forward to not only an enhanced level of support in 2010, but also exciting new models which symbolize our core values of innovation and individuality,” says Citroёn’s managing director Frederic Chapuis.
Adds Jean Francois Bacos, Peugeot managing director: “Improved customer satisfaction will continue to be a key part of our strategy in the year ahead, to enable us to meet the needs of not only passenger car buyers, but also those who are seeing the benefits of our growing range of commercial vehicles.”Both agree that sharing certain ‘invisible’ functions will also rapidly improve service delivery in terms of issues such as parts availability as well as pricing benefits on certain components which are common to both marques. More efficient use of training and tooling are other areas that will reap immediate benefits.”
