PETALING JAYA: Naza Automotive Group has targeted its revenue to surpass RM1 billion next year, fuelled by pent-up demand and back log orders for both new and used vehicles, chairman Datuk Jasmy Ismail said.
Jasmy said while Naza Group had diversified into other businesses over the years including property, infrastructure, telecommunications and food and beverage, automotive continued to be its anchor business as well as the biggest contributor, bringing in 60-65 per cent to the group's total revenue.
"For 2022, the automotive business has reached RM600 million despite being a difficult year for the industry. It (the growth) will continue. In fact, we just finished our business plan for next year and have set the target to grow the automotive business in 2023.
"The target is to touch just over the RM1 billion mark. There is a pent-up demand for automotive. When the government extended the Sales and Service Tax (SST) until June 30 this year, we also noticed there is a lot of demand for cars," he told the New Straits Times in an interview here recently.
Jasmy said the global chip shortage issue had created a lot of backlogs in the delivery of new vehicles.
In 2023, AutoForecast Solutions expects that the chip shortage to result in around three million fewer vehicles being built globally.
In 2022, automakers faced a production shortfall of 4.5 million vehicles due to shortages, down from 10.5 million lost vehicles in 2021.
But for Naza Automotive, Jasmy said, the uncertainty had created a positive break for its reconditioned vehicle business.
"Automotive is the DNA for Naza Group as we started the business in selling used car. This segment of the industry has grown so much with many players coming into the market over the years.
"We were uncertain about the prospects of the recon car business. But over the past couple of years, the global chip supply issue has created demand on this side of the business. I believe the momentum is coming. We expect a bumper year for our reconditioned vehicles business next year of at least two to three-fold growth in units sold," he added.
Jasmy said Naza Group was investing RM30 million-RM40 million over the next two years to streamline its operation, digitalising business, upkeeping and facelifting its premises.
Naza Automotive is the distributor of cars for Suzuki, Mercedes Benz, Maserati and motorbikes such as Ducati.
"The principals want us to improve our physical showrooms. We are doing this now for Maserati and will be doing this soon for NZ Wheels, our dealership for Mercedes Benz. Anything that involved investment in the upkeep or revamps of corporate identity (CI) will be costly because we are dealing with premium brands.
"Out of the total planned investment, CI would easily take up 30-40 per cent," he added.
When asked about Naza bringing the Suzuki brand into Malaysia early last year amid the pandemic, Jasmy said he was optimistic about the brand given its big potential for growth.
He said it might be odd for a mass-market brand like Suzuki to be part of a portfolio that comprised mostly luxury makes, but Naza was positioning the Japanese brand as a lifestyle brand, hence the decision to offer the high-end variant Swift Sports and Jimny.
"The target sales growth for 2023 is triple from this year," he added.