Opening Speech of Mrs Grüttemeyer (Executive Director of M+Z Motors and Director/Dealer Principal of M+Z Motors)
Ladies & Gentlemen
A warm welcome to all of you. Let us celebrate the official opening of the new M+Z Motors passenger & commercial vehicle facility here in Walvis Bay.
It gives me great pleasure and pride to be here this evening, - to celebrate the fact - that after many years of combined efforts, after successes and setbacks, this company stands here today, solid and strong, accelerating into the future.
This has thankfully been achieved through the commitment and dedication of the family, - the members of the board and our employees - and last but not least the loyalty of our many customers.
Thank you to Mercedes Benz SA as well as Chrysler SA for the trust in our relationship - and Ladies and Gentlemen - this relationship started in 1936, 73 years ago with the sale of the first Mercedes Benz truck into southern Africa.
A special thanks to Annette Erasmus for your personal attention and sincerity. Annette has come a long way with M+Z, she is not only a business partner representing MBSA but a valued friend and I am glad to be associated with her as a person!
Customer Satisfaction is our main focus and we want to ensure that our facilities are built to best serve your requirements.
We are passionate about our products and we are continually investing a great deal in our technical staff as well as our sales team to provide you with the best possible automotive experience in all areas.
We opened our doors in Ondangwa in October of last year, this facility started operating three months ago, and we are well ahead into the designing stage of our brand new Mercedes Benz passenger vehicle brand campus in Windhoek, due for completion in December of this year.
These new facilities form part of our Group strategy: to expand into the most important locations - with the goal to increase our Market penetration and to bring our services closer to our clients.
Our product portfolio ranges from small cars to sports cars and luxury sedans; and from versatile vans to heavy duty trucks or comfortable coaches. Our passenger car brands include Mercedes-Benz, Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, Mitsubishi and smart. Commercial vehicle brands include Mercedes-Benz, Freightliner and Mitsubishi Fuso.
Ladies and Gentlemen, we represent the most impressive product range and the most valuable brands in the automotive industry. Backed by strong research and development, these brands will be at the cutting edge of technology in their respective segment, offering you the best there is in terms of innovation, design, safety, quality, service and the sheer enjoyment of owning one of our products.
Ladies and Gentlemen, at this facility we have a staff compliment of 17 experienced and dedicated employees who will assist you with expert advice and consultation - on repairs and services, on spare parts as well as information - on the sale of a new or pre-owned passenger and commercial vehicle of all the brands that I have previously mentioned.
My sincere appreciation goes to all our employees and those individuals who have done a wonderful job in migrating to and setting up these new premises.
I would now like to call up Volker zu Bentheim, our Branch Manager here in Walvis Bay firstly to introduce him to all of you and secondly to hand over a token of appreciation to him and his staff:
Volker, when I took over the reins at M+Z Motors a dear friend gave me good advice and I now want to hand over this advice to you and your staff: He said: always remember to ask yourself the following two questions:
Is it easy to do business with us and for us?
Are we effective first and then efficient?
These are old questions that deserve new answers in these challenging times.
Volker, let us all work hard towards future customer excellence and long term relationships to ensure that M+Z Motors sees its way through to flourish and when it does - we can say, as we say today, that we were privileged to have been a part of it all.
The evening has just begun and the only thing that remains for me to add is to thank you our customers for investing with us and for your continued support, to thank our suppliers and business partners for doing business with us and for us and to wish you all an enjoyable and lovely evening.
Thank you for your attention.
Speech by ANNETTE ERASMUS
manager SALES & DEALER OPERATIONs
DISTINGUISED GUESTS, GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATIVES, SHAREHOLDERS AND PARTNERS, LOYAL CUSTOMERS, SPOUSES AND COLLEAGUES, LADIES & GENTLEMEN,
IT IS INDEED A GREAT PLEASURE AND A PRIVILEDGE FOR ME TO SHARE THIS CELEBRATORY OCCASION WITH YOU
Before I proceed I wish to express our gratitude to our customers present here tonight. Your confidence and trust ARE our most valuable assetS. We are grateful for your patronage and will ensure that we continue to provide you with the best sales and service which we know you expect from our premium brands.
WE ALSO OWE GRATITUDE TO OUR RETAIL PARTNERS LIKE YOU, m&z MOTORS, AND YOUR SALES and service staff for your contribution to our mutual success. Without successful dealers like you caring for the sales and service needs of our customers, we at MBSA would have little or no success to speak of.
keeping focus on our customers is of paramount importance and this is why MBSA introduced the new dealer network strategy in 2001. this project will be completed in 2009 with 27 new brand specific and 45 multibrand facilities, like this one, around the country. this commitment of our dealers to our brands and our customers will collectively represent an investment in excess of r1,8 billion.
we are very aware of the fact that, to provide a new facility, such as the one here in walvisbay, demands from the shareholders a great leap of faith and a commitment to our vision. we at mbsa are convinced, and assure you, that this approach to the retail presentation of a product, customer service and customer care and appreciation will bear exceptional fruits in the months and years ahead.
mbsa has invested in excess of r700 million rand in our east londen manufacturing plant for the state of the art bodyshop manufacturing the c-class and mitsubishi tritons. we are committed to producing vehicles of exceptional quality. we are aware that the slowdown in the pace of growth could see vehicle sales volumes lower than expected but the government spent in infrastructure as well as the decrease in interest rate could see some improvement. MBSA’s presence in southERN africa for over 50 years as well as our activities in the country shows our commitment. while the challenges and opportunities abound alike, it is the people and their passion that decides what the future will be.
ladies and gentle men, given the history of the m&z group and their passion and commitment to our products, you will agree that it is therefor fitting that this great family/group, steeped in the mercedes-benz tradition, has been given the opportunity to extend their excellent service to the community and motoring public of walvisbay.
this facility has exceeded our expectations and for this we would like to thank and congratulate everyone at M&Z motors, and most specially verena for your commitment and passion, without which, this project would never have been realised.
finally i would like to thank all our esteemed guests and customers for their past and future patronage and are confident that will you be delighted by the passionate service you will receive in this great facility.
from all of us here tonight we wish verena and all the staff of m&z motors a great deal of excellent business and success with this new facility
