GM’s new CEO to focus more on customers

JAKARTA. US automotive giant General Motors (GM) Indonesia has announced plans for a customer-centric strategy as it introduced a new CEO following its earlier factory closure in the country.

The company promised to increase its level of service quality for its Chevrolet customers through a set of initiatives called “Chevrolet Customer Complete Care” that was launched in June, including 24-hour assistance.

“In an effort to create a strong customer base, we have committed to offer quality services as best as we can. We expect that this strategy will grow our customers’ confidence,” GM Indonesia CEO Gaurav Gupta said Friday.

Gupta, who spent 18 years of his career at various GM offices in Asia, worked as the managing director of the company’s Vietnam subsidiary prior to his appointment in Indonesia to replace Michael Dunne, who resigned in February after the company announced it would close its facility in June.

GM Indonesia’s closure of its assembly plant in Bekasi, West Java, cut some 500 jobs as the company’s executive vice president Stefan Jacoby acknowledged difficult head-to-head competition with Japanese carmakers, which have a stronghold in the country.

The Bekasi plant was opened in 1995, but shut a decade later as Japanese brands tightened their grip on the market. It was reopened two years ago to produce the multi-purpose vehicle (MPV) Chevrolet Spin that was marketed domestically and to Southeast Asia.

The Chevrolet Spin was the company’s attempt to take on Japanese rivals as the car has proven its popularity in Brazil, but was too costly to be profitable in Indonesia as most of the parts had to be imported.

The Spin, which sells for around US$12,000 and competes with Toyota’s Avanza and Honda’s Mobilio, failed to take off as GM had hoped, making the production plant at Bekasi a financial burden.

Last year, the company’s production was less than a quarter of the plant’s annual capacity of 40,000 vehicles.

Gupta said the company continued distributing its Chevrolet Orlando, Captiva and Trailblazer models through its dealers and imported from South Korea and Thailand, while a handful of Spin models remained from those produced by its now-defunct plant.

Gupta said the GM headquarters had decided to shift its manufacturing base for Spin to India, where the company would continue production in 2017, adding that “we don’t know yet whether the India plant will supply Spin for the Indonesian market”.

“At this time, I can’t really answer the question whether to reinvest again for a new plant in Indonesia, because we are now focusing more on giving the best service for customers during our transition process,” Gupta said, when asked if the company wished to reopen its factory in the future.

Meanwhile, GM marketing director Meilita Iskandar said the company had prepared to launch a new sports-utility vehicle (SUV) at the upcoming Gaikindo International Indonesia Auto Show (GIIAS) that would be held from Aug. 20 to 30.

Meilita said the company did not set a specific sales target for the auto show, while expecting improvement in automotive demand through various incentives from the government for the economy.

Indonesia’s economy grew by 4.67 percent in the first semester of 2015, slower growth than the same period last year, which was 5.03 percent. (Grace D Amianti)