Nissan announced its continuous growth in its business performance over the last 5 years has lifted Nissan Middle East to the Top Priority Markets worldwide. Nissan has seen its volume grow by 50% and market share rise by 25% across the GCC in the last 5 years. Nissan has built its performance in the region on the quantity and quality of its business, customer satisfaction and service excellence, and its brand power investments. "We haven't just experienced an increase in sales over these past five years," said Samir Cherfan, Managing Director, Nissan Middle East. "Nissan has grown in terms of volume, market share, customer satisfaction and brand power. We have put in place a game changing plan in our key market, Saudi Arabia, which has been instrumental in achieving our growth strategy." The first pillar of Nissan's growth strategy in the region is the effective management of its vehicle line-up focuses on its core models: Patrol, X-trail, Pathfinder, Altima, Maxima, Sunny, Sentra and Nissan pick-up, as well as the planning of their life-cycles. "In the past 5 years, we have managed to achieve 70% of our sales volume through our core models. The increase of Patrol sales by 235% and the X-trail by 440% in this 5-year period a testament that our core model product line-up strategy is effective," said Cherfan. The second pillar is building leadership in customer service, with the aim to deliver the best experience to customers across the entire sales and after-sales cycle. Nissan has reached a top group position in all the key GCC markets and came first in more than half. The third pillar is the brand power performance. Nissan entered the Top 100 best global brands by Interbrand with a ranking of 49 in 2015. In the last 5 years, Nissan brought innovation and excitement to its regional customers through unique engagement platforms such as GT Academy, UEFA and more recently, its ICC sponsorship. This was complemented by the introduction of NISMO - Nissan's world famous motorsport and road car performance brand – as well as record-breaking feats that have led to 5 Guinness World Records. "Our brand has been the most awarded automotive brand in the region, grabbing 32 awards in 5 years, in addition to increasing purchase consideration by 49%, validating that our brand strategy resonates with our target audience," added Cherfan. Nissan's Revival Plan in KSA has been instrumental to its success in the region. In November 2013, Nissan renewed its bond to the Saudi Arabian market by establishing a direct presence in the Kingdom through the formation of Nissan KSA, and also appointed Alissa Auto as its strategic partner. Both moves showed an immediate jump in market share from 0.4% in FY12 to 7.2% in FY14, the first full year of operation. In March 2015, Nissan announced the appointment of Petromin as a second strategic partner in the Kingdom. "FY15 was a transitional year during which we had to manage the impact of our exponential growth. We took a decision to slow down our volumes and focus on delivering value through service excellence to retain the trust of our customers," said Cherfan. "Perfectly matching the existing synergies that exist between Nissan and Alissa, Petromin's invaluable existing network of successful sales showrooms and service centers will assist in accelerating the growth in sales and customer service levels allowing us to reach 9.5% market share in FY16, while continuing to build our network to reach 54 showrooms, 49 service centers and 550 quick service centers," added Cherfan. Looking to the GCC in 2016, Nissan listed its business priorities as: growth with focus on Saudi Arabia, sustained customer leadership and continued investment in the Nissan brand including CSR engagement. Nissan is looking at FY16 positively and is forecasting GCC volume growth of 12% and market share growth of 15%.
