Suzuki News

Dale Wyatt has been appointed General Manager in charge of Dealer Development at Suzuki GB PLC in Milton Keynes.

Wyatt, 41, has been in the Motor Industry since 1987, initially with Partco where he was promoted to the position of Regional Sales Manager.

He joined Volkswagen Group UK in 1994, first as an Area Manager responsible for 12 Dealerships, subsequently becoming Development Ventures Manager in 1998 and Brand Manager and a Regional Director responsible for 32 VW retailers in January, 2002.

In 2004 he was appointed Head of Business and Franchise Director Designate at Oxford Audi, leaving to join Saab GB in December, 2005.

At Suzuki GB he will lead a dealer development team dedicated to expanding the presence of the Suzuki franchise throughout the UK in key market and open point areas reporting to David Seward, Director – Sales and Marketing.

Commenting on the challenge of his new appointment Wyatt says that the Suzuki franchise is becoming one of the most valuable in the market place with considerable scope for expansion into the future.

“With its new product ranges, high quality value for money products and unrivalled expertise in compact car and 4×4 design Suzuki is now a must have franchise for many dealers and one which will grow dramatically in the next decade,” he says, “and I am delighted now to be able to play a part in the future of the Company in the UK.”

Dale Wyatt is married, lives in Northamptonshire and has two children. He was born in the West Country and educated in Somerset.

Suzuki Motor Corporation has decided to build a new automobile assembly production plant in St Petersburg to meet the growing demand for new cars in the Russian market. The 243,000 square metre sized plant will be built in St Petersburg’s Shushary industrial zone.

An agreement on the new plant’s construction was signed on 8 June, 2007 by Suzuki’s Chairman and CEO, Osamu Suzuki, and Russia’s Minister of Economic Development and Trade, Herman Gref, who were attending the St Petersburg Economic Forum.

Mr Suzuki also signed a memorandum with the Governor of St Petersburg, Valentina Matvienko, agreeing to conduct studies on strategic investment in the Shushary industrial zone.

The St Petersburg plant will represent an investment of approximately 90 million euro (14 billion Japanese yen) and is scheduled to start operating in the latter half of 2009. Models planned for production are the Grand Vitara compact sport utility vehicle and the SX4 sport crossover vehicle.

With 500 employees in the new plant, Suzuki targets production of 5,000 units in the plant’s first year of operation and future annual production of 30,000 units. In 2006, Suzuki’s 30 dealers in Russia sold 16,000 units of the Grand Vitara and other models.

Overview of new plant

Company name (tentative): SUZUKI AUTO MFG RUS LLC

Location: St Petersburg’s Shushary industrial zone

Investment ratio: 50% Suzuki Motor Corporation,

50% Itochu Corporation

Plant site area: 243,000 sqm

Total investment: approx. 90 million euro (14 billion Japanese yen)

Models to be produced: Grand Vitara and SX4

Number of employees: 500