Good news for BMW customers in Egypt: BMW headquarter realigns sales regions, incl. Africa and Egypt!

Amidst all the negative news about BMW Egypt & Bavarian Auto Group and the many complaints from disappointed and dissatisfied BMW customers in Egypt, today we finally received some good news from the BMW headquarters in Germany, which could be an important step into 'realigning' BMW Egypt & Bavarian Auto Group back on the path of a professional and customer-oriented car company.

The good news is that the Munich-based BMW Group is reorganizing its sales regions, including Africa and consequently also the Egyptian market.

This comes as capitalising on the potential of growth markets and increasing regional focus are key aspects of the BMW Group’s corporate Strategy Number ONE > NEXT. In line with this, the BMW Group is reorganising its sales regions.

From 1 January 2018, Hildegard Wortmann will take on responsibility for the entire Asia Pacific region (excluding China). As part of the reorganisation, Ms Wortmann will be based in Singapore, a move designed to enable closer contact to customers, dealers and importers in this region, which contains many high-potential markets, as well as several important established markets. Ms Wortmann is currently Head of BMW Brand, responsible for both product management and marketing, having previously held a number of management positions within the BMW Group. Her successor in Munich has been named as Sven Schuwirth, who until October last year was responsible for Digital Business at Audi AG, having previously been Vice-President for Brand Strategy and Digitalisation at the company.

A further aspect of the strategic sales regions’ reorganisation sees Hendrik von Kuenheim assume responsibility for the region covering Africa, the Middle East, Russia and importer markets in eastern Europe.

Commenting on this strategic realignment, Dr Ian Robertson, member of the BMW AG Board of Management responsible for Sales and Brand BMW, said, “Both these regions cover markets which we believe offer great sales potential. This reorganisation, including the relocation of responsibilities for Asia Pacific to Singapore, increases our regional focus and emphasises our commitment to our customers and dealers in these important markets. In Hildegard and Hendrik, we have two strong leaders with the skills and experience to further increase customer focus and grow sales, in line with our corporate strategy. The iconic BMW brand has had a great start to its second century; with Sven Schuwirth the BMW Group has gained an executive whose experience, especially in the area of digitalisation, will prove invaluable in developing the brand’s strength even further.”

During the past few years Dr. Ian Robertson and his team, as well as other decision-makers at the BMW Group, have been updated regularly through the reader's letters and article of Auto Arabia on the ongoing complaints of BMW customers in Egypt and the way BMW Egypt / Bavarian Auto Group has been handling those complaints in a very unprofessional and customer-unfriendly way.

The business conduct and customer service of BMW Egypt has been so bad during the past few years, that even the Egyptian Consumer Agency (CPA) and its chairman Atef Yakoub have been filing reports and suing the BMW Egypt & Bavarian Auto Group in several court cases for returning the rights of several dissatisfied BMW customers.

I am sure that Dr. Ian Robertson and his team(s) will update Mr. Hendrik von Kuenheim, the new Head of Sales Region Africa & Middle East on the unsatisfying customer service situation in Egypt and the extremely low sales numbers of imported BMW cars (CBU), which are reduced intentionally by the Bavarian Auto Group for the favor of the locally-assembled CKD cars as they bring a 10-times higher profit margin than the imported CBU cars. (Click here for the article about BMW Egypt's irrational over-price sales strategy)

We from our side here at Auto Arabia will also make sure that Mr. Hendrik von Kuenheim will be updated regularly about what is happening with the BMW brand in Egypt and how existent and potential BMW customer are treated by the Bavarian Auto Group, when it comes to customer & after sales service or the sale of new vehicles with a massive and irrational over-price.

MS
25.10.2017
Munich - Cairo - Dubai