International Luxury car maker BMW opens Dealership in Raipur

     Raipur, January 31, 2013: BMW today inaugurated a fully integrated dealership in Raipur city with Munich Motors as their new outlet.

     Prashant Mandhan, managing Director of the Munich Motors would head the new dealership, President of BMW Group India Philipp von Sahr told reporters here.

     “Having understood its importance as an important regional center, BMW India first established its presence in Raipur in 2011. With the introduction of our new full-fledged 4S facility comprising sales, service, spares and systems, we are happy to strengthen our commitment to customers in the region,” said Philipp von Sahr.

     “Raipur continues to play an important role in BMW’s market offensive and with the launch of our new facility we will continue to set new benchmarks in the premium car market in the region,” he said.

     By end of 2014, BMW India would aggressively expand its dealer network by increasing the number of sales outlets to 50 across major metropolitan centers and emerging markets in India from 34 at present, the President said.

     BMW India has been committed towards the development of a BMW dealer network of international standards at all important commercial centers across the country, he said adding the Raipur showroom was based on the “Urban Street Display” concept, which is a signature of BMW layout.

     To a question, Sahr said the BMW group has so far invested 1.8 billion Indian rupees, with activities included establishment of a production plant in Chennai and a parts warehouse in Mumbai.

     As a global company, the BMW Group operates 29 production and assembly facilities in 14 countries and has a global sales network in more than 140 countries.

     In 2012, the BMW Group sold about 1.85 million cars and more than 117,000 motorcycles worldwide. The profit before tax for the financial year 2011 was euro 7.38 billion on revenues amounting to euro 68.82 billion, Sahr added.

     At December 31, 2011, the BMW group had a workforce of approximately 100,000 employees worldwide and currently the Chennai plant has about 650 employees, to produce 11,000 cars.

       Spread over 38000 sq ft, the new dealership has an ultra-modern showroom integrated with an after-sales service facility featuring service bays and a spare parts inventory.

      The showroom can display 7 cars and the workshop is equipped with 10 service bays that can service up to 40 cars per day.

     Launched in 2011, Munich Motors represents BMW in Raipur and Nagpur in Maharashtra.

      Munich Motors employs close to 30 people who have received intense training in Sales, Service, Spare parts and Business Systems to ensure customers receive best-in-class pre and post sales ownership experience, MD Mandhan said.

     A team of sales and service engineers have also been trained at BMW’s training centers in Singapore, Malaysia and Germany, he added.