GM Mideast upbeat despite US turmoil

The president of troubled GM's Middle East operations on Tuesday insisted it would be business as normal in the region for the car giant.

Mike Devereux said the US company's Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection move on Monday would have no impact in the Middle East, adding that first quarter sales in the region were down 19 percent, compared to the industry average of 21 percent.

"People might not understand that nothing has changed. They (customers) can have confidence in our products and that their warranties will be there."

Regarding second quarter sales figures, Devereux said they were not available yet but he said he remained upbeat about future prospects for GM in the region.


He also said there were no plans for more redundancies among GM staff in the region, saying that it employed 170 people in the UAE and axed 10 percent of the workforce back in February.

“People quite frankly are a huge asset for us here. We have quite a few people in this tower and down in Jebel Ali and we truly believe we are going to need everyone of them because this market will come back with a vengeance much quicker than you will see western Europe or the US come back because the basics are already there," he added.

"Because Dubai is such a diversified economy it was hot harder than the rest of the gulf but it will also come back quite quicker as well.”

Devereux told Arabian Business: “With Ramadan moving into August and September, we think the summer is going to be a good selling season for us.

“There won’t be growth necessarily in the Middle East if you define growth as you sold more than the last year. It’s very lean times for all manufacturers, this isn’t a GM issue.

"The Middle Eastern car market will be smaller than last year. There are pockets that will be less affected than others. For example, Kuwait was really flat and not really down to the extent that you have seen other Middle Eastern markets.

"Qatar because of its gas reserves and projected GDP growth of around 9 percent, one of the highest on the planet, you will see Qatar weather the storm a bit bigger.

"Probably the UAE has been hardest hit but mainly that’s because the UAE is the most diversified economy in the gulf and it isn’t as highly reliant on petro dollars as some of the other gulf economies.”

He said GM would continue to invest in its Jebel Ali facility and added that the company would also grow its technical training centre that was launched in the Philippines to train technicians in Manila and have them come and work in dealerships in the Middle East.

Source: www.arabianbusiness.com