Kia 2010 Annual Report Download - page 10

Kia Motors stands atop the crest of a
multi-year surge in the popularity of
our cars. From Asia to Latin America,
from the developing world to the
most advanced countries, our vehicles
are on a relentless drive to grow
market share. With innovative design
and bold brand management, Kia
has rapidly turned itself into a major
global enterprise.
Amid expanding global demand for automobiles in 2010, Kia Motors
stood out as having the highest growth rate among all the world’s
automakers. Total overseas retail sales amounted to 1,605,000 units,
up 29.5% from the previous year. Improved brand image, quality
improvements, a focus on localization strategies and the opening of
our new Georgia, US, plant all contributed to last year’s outstanding
performance. As a result, Kia’s global market share posted a 0.3%p gain
from 2.6% in 2009 to a record-high 2.9% in 2010.
In the US market we recorded 18.7% growth, selling 356,000 units to
seize a record-high market share of 3.1%. The Sorento, now produced
at the Georgia plant, sold 108,000 units in 2010, recording annual sales
for a single model above 100,000 for the first time since Kia entered
the US market. In Europe, another advanced market, we sold 392,000
units, while in China, the largest emerging car market, we recorded
sales of 333,000 units. Rounding out the major sales regions, we sold
176,000 units in the Middle East, 137,000 in Latin America, 81,000 in
Africa and 76,000 units in Asia-Pacific.
Turning to our vehicle model-based results, Kia’s portfolio of eco-
friendly, small-size passenger cars continued to demonstrate impressive
strength, while sales of the new Cadenza (K7), new Optima (K5) and
Sorento (Sorento R) all logged overseas sales growth. The best-selling
Forte (known as ‘Cerato’ in some markets) topped out at 320,000 units,
while the Rio (Pride) sold 206,000 units and the Sorento sold 174,000
units.
Accelerating Pace of
Global Expansion
Kia Motors’ strategy for achieving
competitiveness in the global marketplace is to
follow a policy of localization for every individual
market. Backed by outstanding product quality
and design, our local teams have developed
specialized management and marketing plans
for China, the US and Europe. Their efforts have
since been validated by the steady sales gains
recorded in their respective home markets.
Another effective means of implementing a
strong localization strategy is to establish local
production bases. Kia’s plant in the US state of
Georgia began full operation in February of 2010.
With an annual capacity of 300,000 units, the
new plant provides the capability to respond
quickly and flexibly to local market conditions. It
also generates significant goodwill benefits for
Kia Motors, as it is responsible for the direct and
indirect creation of many thousands of jobs, as
well as general economic development of the
region.
Added to the 430,000-unit annual capacity of
our China plant and the 300,000-unit scale of
the Slovakia plant, Kia Motors now boasts a total
overseas production base of 1.03 millions of
vehicles per year. Significantly, each production
base is far more than an assembly line, as each
one fully embodies our localization strategy by
housing design, R&D, production, sales and
service functions for the global market. Kia is
also actively expanding its global outreach with
local insights, for example by propelling cee’d
and Venga as strategic products for the European
market, while a localized version of Forte (Cerato)
was deemed a better fit for Chinese consumers.
Global Strength,
Local Insight
Overseas
Business
Performance
20 COMPONENTS OF SUSTAINABLE GROWTH 21
KIA MOTORS ANNUAL REPORT 2010