For over two years, Emory Carell held the title of sales and marketing director and
was just recently appointed as GM of Volvo Car Group.
He is now responsible for 27 markets, including the Manor region.
We met up with him at the Volvo showroom in Dubai Festival City to discuss the success
in the past year and what is to come in the next.
Good morning Emory, how are you doing today?
Very good, thank you very much Habiba, thank you for coming to our Volvo showroom in Dubai.
It's a pleasure to be here, the showroom is actually quite beautiful as I told you, getting
a lot of sunlight which is refreshing.
So how have sales been doing over the past few years, have sales been increasing year
by year?
Well, we start from 2011, in 2011 we grew our sales by 23%, which was an amazing growth
year over year versus 2010 and if you look at 2012, the growth was even higher, 40%,
and we were the highest growing premium brand in the region in 2012.
If you look at 2013, then we are growing in some of the markets and we are stable in some
other markets.
And which markets do you feel that you are really performing well in and which markets
need an extra push?
UAE is our focus market, it has been and will be 40% of premium segment that I was mentioning
before is in the UAE.
Like we did a recent restructuring in Lebanon and the results are already paying off, we
doubled our sales volume in Lebanon versus last year.
And we have to be successful in Saudi as well, because almost 40% of the total automotive
market is in the Saudi.
And we believe, yes, it is one of the most important markets of course.
I believe we can talk about good results in Saudi next year.
Okay, we'll come back next year then and ask you the same question again, see how the restructuring
goes there.
And any new markets that you are planning to explore?
Definitely, I mean, Iraq is in our radar and to be specific, Northern Iraq, we hear that
our competitor friends have been active lately.
So I believe within 2014, we will appoint a business partner to represent Volvo brand
in Iraq.
What's coming up, new technologies, new designs that we can look forward to?
Definitely, I mean, we are changing the design direction in Volvo.
So if you look at our 2014 model year products, we see that the front of the car is becoming
more expressive.
The logo is growing.
Lately, we introduced a cyclist detection system and before that, we introduced a pedestrian
detection.
We say there will be no fatal accidents in a Volvo by 2020.
That's a strong claim, an ambitious one.
And which models have performed quite well in the region?
In front of our best sellers, XC60 and XC90, so small SUV and midsize SUV, they represent
about 40% of our sales in the region.
And our best seller is XC60.
And we see that people start preferring our design, which is the sporty version of our
products.
Anything to look forward to in 2014, new launches?
We are introducing a new engine family.
It is 2 liters, but it gives very high output, like 306 horsepower.
So we will be pioneers again in that technology.
By mid-2014, we are going to start mentioning, not having the launch, but mentioning about
XC90.
And we can refer to concept coupe that we displayed in Frankfurt Motor Show, which was
chosen as the best concept car.
And we can see some design elements in coupe concept in the XC90, which is coming soon.
Of course, after buying a Volvo, in terms of service, what's Volvo doing to really
stand out?
We want to give our customers unique experience, not by just driving a Volvo, but also after
sales.
So just started implementing a new approach in our workshop, which is called one-hour stop.
Let's say a gearbox change takes about six hours to complete the job.
So it's like two days.
But with one-hour stop, it's only three hours.
How does that actually happen?
It's a team that works together.
So we create teams within the workshop, and they know what they are doing, and they have
specific jobs.
So there are many less walkings between the parts depot, in the car, special tools, etc.
So we were able to increase the efficiency, minimum by 50%.
And my favorite question of all?
Which one is your favorite?
All right.
Very different.
It is a tough question.
Our newest car, V40, is a very fun car to drive.
As a driver, that's my favorite car.
And even it comes as 4x4, and it is very fun to drive.
But when it comes to functionality, everyday use car, even family, I think I would go for
XE60.
But we always prefer fun over functionality.
So we always have to take that route.
I would only angry.
Thank you so much, Emery, for your time.
Thank you very much.
