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IVECO cements Kenyan market entry

by Teddy Leting

Italian industrial vehicle manufacturing company, IVECO, in cooperation with the General Motor Company (GMC) on Wednesday, opened a showroom on Mombasa road which is considered as the phase 2 of its introduction and operation in Kenya and East Africa.

According to IVECO’S Area Manager for Gulf Area, Iraq and East Africa, Mr. Marco Torta, the company has already developed 12 brands with the latest being the Euro Cargo which was officially released to the market during the opening.

“We are running 12 different units running from the On-road to Off-road, Light duty, medium duty to Heavy Duty.” He says.

In 2017, IVECO opened their Assembly line in Mombasa for Medium and Heavy Units; the Euro Cargo 4×4 and Euro Cargo considered as the medium while Trakker and Stralis considered as the Heavy duty. The Medium Duty goes to the market with the value of KSH. 4.1 Million (40954 USD) while the Heavy Model, Trakker goes as KSH 13.8 Million (137,848 USD).

Annually, according to Mr. Sheikh who is the Managing Director of GMC, the Assembly produces about 300 units which could be increased depending on the demand. This rate of production however is not limited and they target 5000 units in the next five years.

“In a year we produce 300 units in Kenya. We just opened the Assembly line in Mombasa. And we’re going with the market demand. That’s the requirement in the market today but we aim at producing up to 5000 units in five years.” Mr. Sheikh says.

For Mr. Marco, IVECO has completed its first two Phases with the first being the Assembly line in Mombasa and the second Phase being the showroom in Nairobi. However, he said that the third phase which has now been left and intended for the last quarter of the year will involve opening other showrooms and branches in towns as Nakuru and Kisumu.

“ Phase one was in Mombasa designed for assembly then phase two in Nairobi which we’re launching today and phase three will be in other regions like Nakuru and Kisumu” Mr. Marco explains.

IVECO’s Mombasa Assembly line has so far created jobs and employed a staff of 300 personnel with the Nairobi showroom having 45 staff members. According to Mr. Sheikh, a larger number of employees is expected as soon as production and demand of IVECO units increases.

“The more transactions we will have, the more series we’ll have and the more staff we will need.  With the 300 staff we have employed at the Assembly line and the 45 (staff) here in Nairobi, we will need more. Not only people in Nairobi but to other regions once we open our third phase.” Mr. Sheikh Clarifies.

In Africa, Kenya market and distribution of IVECO brands is ranked the third after South Africa and Egypt respectively. This is cited with the demand for South Africa and Egypt being majorly for transport services while Kenya, for both distribution as Construction and Transport.

Mr. Sheikh brands IVECO as a tough and durable machine for hardship areas and circumstances.  “If you look at the construction sites, you’ll see that name of IVECO, it is born for greatness, it’s created for hardships, and it just doesn’t give up easily.” He says.

So far, the company (IVECO) has not released Bus-units but have indicated that they are in the process of distributing some units to the market.

Currently, IVECO have produced and distributed 12 Brands, and have 53 Research and Development (R&D) Centers. In addition, they have 66 plants, 180 National Markets, 63,356 employees, 6000 individuals dedicated to innovation and 9,629 Active patents owned.

They have also invested $957 Million in Research and Development and $4.8 Million in Training. IVECO also has an operating Margin in Industrial Activities of 5.8%, $27,361 Million as Revenues and $9.4 Billion available liquidity.

 

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