BMW ME sees 10pc sales drop in 2009

BMW ME sees 10pc sales drop in 2009

BMW Middle East reported a 10 percent drop in sales across the region during the first two quarters...

July 12, 2009 2:50 by Dana El Baltaji

BMW Middle East reported a 10 percent drop in sales across the region during the first two quarters of 2009 compared with the same period last year, a company statement said.

The company sold 7,165 vehicles across the region’s 14 markets, with some markets doing better than others. BMW sold 1,241 cars in Saudi Arabia, 531 in Lebanon and 451 in Syria from January to June, marking significant increases: 24 percent in Saudi, 84 percent in Lebanon and 58 percent in Syria.

Regionally, the most popular cars sold during the same period are: the 7 Series (2,077 sales); X6 (1,249); X5 (1,176); 3 Series (1,021); and 5 Series (979).

“The current climate in which the automotive industry has been operating has continued through the first six months of 2009, and as a result a 10% drop in sales was not unexpected,” said James Crichton, sales and marketing director for BMW Middle East.

“We continue to work closely with our importers and the results have helped us to not only achieve growth in several markets, but also increase our market share by three percent from our two main competitors.”

“We remain on track to come through the rest of 2009 in the best condition possible, and expect the launch of the highly anticipated BMW X5M and X6M models to boost our sales performance in the second half of the year,” he said.