General Motors, DT Dobie car sales go up

• Move attributed to high demand in commercial trucks and pick-ups.

General Motors East Africa (GMEA) and DT Dobie braced competition in the motor vehicle industry to increase their unit sales by the end of July.

This has been attributed to high demand in commercial trucks and pick-ups.

According to the latest data from Kenya Motor Industry Association (KMI), GMEA posted a 7.4 percent increase by selling 1,833 units in the seven months compared to 1,350 units recorded during the same period last year.

Speaking on the phone, the GMEA’s managing director Rita Kavashe attributed the results to the company’s long term investment strategies, governmental projects and transition of public service vehicles to buses.

“Every day we are getting large number of requests for buses as entrepreneurs are shifting to high-occupancy vehicles. Also we are delivering a sizeable number of units to various government programs and initiatives,” she said.

During the same period, DT Dobie sold 1,065 units compared to 1,028 units, which was a 3.5 per cent rise.

The sales have increased the companies’ market shares to 31.89 and 14.39 percentages respectively, compared to 27.16 and 15.78 percentages they posted last year.

Toyota Kenya, which was the largest automotive firm by market share in 2010, saw its sales drop by 3.7 percent to register 1707 units from 1823 units.

This has seen the company’s market presence drop to 22.30 per cent, compared to 25.29 percent last year.

According to its marketing manager Christian Kasima, most units sold in the market were commercial trucks and pick-ups, which Toyota does not sell. 

Overall units sale in the industry slumped by 5 per cent at the end of July, by posting 6750 units from 7102 units a year earlier, a situation that is likely to upset the market’s earnings.

CMC Motors registered the largest drop of 36.6 per cent, after selling 678 units compared to 1070 units followed by Simba Colt which sold 776 units from 1198 units, which is a 35.2 percentage decline.

CMC’s results may be attributed to months-long boardroom wrangles that saw the company halted from trading at the bourse, and its entire directors disbanded.