Suzuki Celerio recall fails to halt Suzuki growth

Controversial recall action looks unlikely to dent ambitious plans to boost Suzuki's business in Britain by more than 20%.

Suzuki GB is still on course to maintain growth despite having to take its Celerio supermini off the market only a day after it went into the showrooms.

“More than 1,600 examples have been sold since the car went back on sale. We’ve gone from being embarrassed and irritated to very proud that the situation was dealt with so quickly. Now we’re ready to launch Celerio to the fleets,” said sales and marketing director Dale Wyatt.

In an interview at the launch of auto gear shift and 84g/km versions of the one-litre, three cylinder model, Wyatt told Fleet News: “Our problem has been resolved and it will have no impact on our aim for fleet business. This is a car that’s practical, good to drive and competitive and represents a good opportunity with customers looking for no-nonesense, A to B transport.

“We don’t have a big field team, so we’re working with Lex to create offers for small and medium businesses, health and community workers and the workshops. As it is so incredibly easy to handle, we’re also aiming to strike up relationships with driving schools.”

Since 2011, annual Suzuki volumes have risen from 20,000 to more than 37,000 to post an 83 per cent increase against market growth of 28%. But Wyatt is confident that new model introductions will allow further expansion.

“We will register nearly 40,000 vehicles this year and demand for the new Vitara range we launched last month underlines the fact that we’re now in a good place. Our target for the first four weeks was 1,000 orders and we achieved 1,250. After always operating from stock, we’re now into four months forward ordering. This is something that has never happened before and I’m now spending a lot of time trying to persuade the factory to divert production to the UK to improve our supply.

“Originally, we intended to sell 8,000 Vitaras this year but we will reach 10,000 units. Over the next 12 months we’ll add two more new cars to our line-up - a mini-cross A-segment model with four wheel drive capability and a Fiesta-size, traditional hatchback style B-segment model to go alongside the Swift.  

“Both concepts were on display at the Geneva motor show and the production versions will broaden our range and allow us to enjoy further growth. We have a business and a network that deserves a two per cent market share, which is 50,000 registrations. here’s no deadline for this, but fleet sales will play their part in helping us get there,” he said.