Hyundai is fast ramping up the numbers due to its momentum in third world markets. But metamorphosing itself into a premium brand still remains work in progress
While the journey for Hyundai Motor Company started as a unit to assemble cars for Ford Motor Company back in 1967, it was a matter of just few years before its founder Chung Ju-Yung started harbouring dreams of making a cut in the global automotive circuit. After the initial run, the years that passed attracted huge investments from the company for developing technological capabilities & since then, there has been no looking back. At the end of 2010, Hyundai stood tall at fourth place with sales of 5.74 million units along with its partner Kia Motors, ironically overtaking Ford, which managed to sell 5.31 million units even after a string of profitable quarters. Also, Toyota (which Hyundai used to follow), is still busy streamlining the production after the onslaught of the tsunami and several episodes of vehicle recalls.
With an employee base of about 75,000 people across the globe, the company is present in 193 countries through over 6,000 dealerships and showrooms worldwide. For the first three quarters in 2011, Hyundai filed an 18.2% growth in revenues and 34.1% growth in net income as compared to the same period in 2010. In unit sales, Hyundai has managed to register a growth of 11.7%, selling 3,024,000 units worldwide as compared to 2,707,000 units sold during the same period last year. At a time when the industry is facing a situation of squeezing margins, Hyundai has been able to take its net profit ratio to 10.7% compared to 9.4% in 2010. Undeniably, the chaebol has done a commendable job of making its presence felt among the biggies across the globe, and is looking desperately for ways to make its image more upmarket globally. But is it really managing to do so?
After the launch of its new brand slogan ‘New Thinking. New Possibilities’ at the 2011 North American International Auto Show in Detroit in January, the company has declared a new focus area. “Our goal is not to become the biggest car company. Our goal is to become the most-loved car company and a trusted lifetime partner of our owners,” said Euisun Chung, Vice Chairman, Hyundai Motor Company, at the Detroit Motor Show. The company is planning to expand its production capacity from 3,620,000 units at the end of 2010 to 4,320,000 units by 2012. The company will be producing more units in its plants overseas (2,050,000 units) as compared to its production in Korea (1,820,000 units) at the end of 2011 for the first time in its history and is planning to bring in higher efficiencies in its manufacturing process. From a situation of having no integrated platforms at the end of 2002 out of the total 22 platforms (producing 28 models), the company is expecting to reduce the platform count to 6 and integrate all of them, resulting in the production of 40 models. With a view to bring its products at a faster pace to the market, Hyundai is planning to reduce the model development time to 24 months by 2013 from 40 months in 2002.
While the journey for Hyundai Motor Company started as a unit to assemble cars for Ford Motor Company back in 1967, it was a matter of just few years before its founder Chung Ju-Yung started harbouring dreams of making a cut in the global automotive circuit. After the initial run, the years that passed attracted huge investments from the company for developing technological capabilities & since then, there has been no looking back. At the end of 2010, Hyundai stood tall at fourth place with sales of 5.74 million units along with its partner Kia Motors, ironically overtaking Ford, which managed to sell 5.31 million units even after a string of profitable quarters. Also, Toyota (which Hyundai used to follow), is still busy streamlining the production after the onslaught of the tsunami and several episodes of vehicle recalls.
With an employee base of about 75,000 people across the globe, the company is present in 193 countries through over 6,000 dealerships and showrooms worldwide. For the first three quarters in 2011, Hyundai filed an 18.2% growth in revenues and 34.1% growth in net income as compared to the same period in 2010. In unit sales, Hyundai has managed to register a growth of 11.7%, selling 3,024,000 units worldwide as compared to 2,707,000 units sold during the same period last year. At a time when the industry is facing a situation of squeezing margins, Hyundai has been able to take its net profit ratio to 10.7% compared to 9.4% in 2010. Undeniably, the chaebol has done a commendable job of making its presence felt among the biggies across the globe, and is looking desperately for ways to make its image more upmarket globally. But is it really managing to do so?
After the launch of its new brand slogan ‘New Thinking. New Possibilities’ at the 2011 North American International Auto Show in Detroit in January, the company has declared a new focus area. “Our goal is not to become the biggest car company. Our goal is to become the most-loved car company and a trusted lifetime partner of our owners,” said Euisun Chung, Vice Chairman, Hyundai Motor Company, at the Detroit Motor Show. The company is planning to expand its production capacity from 3,620,000 units at the end of 2010 to 4,320,000 units by 2012. The company will be producing more units in its plants overseas (2,050,000 units) as compared to its production in Korea (1,820,000 units) at the end of 2011 for the first time in its history and is planning to bring in higher efficiencies in its manufacturing process. From a situation of having no integrated platforms at the end of 2002 out of the total 22 platforms (producing 28 models), the company is expecting to reduce the platform count to 6 and integrate all of them, resulting in the production of 40 models. With a view to bring its products at a faster pace to the market, Hyundai is planning to reduce the model development time to 24 months by 2013 from 40 months in 2002.
