The MAN brand, like many other truck OEMs, had its struggles with supply after the advent of the pandemic, which it has only arrested in recent years, experiencing a MANumental year of growth.
But since the new TG3 series was unveiled two years ago in a groundbreaking move for the Australian trucking market, it’s all been considerably uphill from then until now.
Head of MAN Derek Schroff has been at the helm of the operation since the start of this year, most recently overseeing the ‘MANumental’ sale, with a number of selected TGX and TGS models being delivered with upfront factory rebates, driveline warranties, entire vehicle warranties, and discounted contract maintenance packages.
It’s all part of Penske’s desire to get more MAN models on the road as they continue to eye off a growing share of the Australian truck market.
“It was really the start of 2023 when we were first started getting those trucks into customers hands and onto the road,” Derek tells PowerTorque.
“And since we’ve had the trucks on the road, we’re really gaining some momentum. We’re getting great feedback on reliability of the TG3 models and the performance of them.
“We’ve had a ‘rubber hitting the road’ theme internally here at Penske with the MAN brand, now that we have stock on hand and trucks available to supply to the market.
“We’re starting to get momentum in that 6×4 prime mover market.”
Comparing the first half of 2024 to the first half of 2023, the MAN brand has already experienced 12 per cent growth across that time period, with sales going up from 130 in the first half compared to 153.
Derek says they’re expecting an even larger increase in the second half of the year, following trends from 2023.
“We’re happy from the first half of the year, just considering what we’ve had, to be able to supply to the market, but we’re anticipating a much larger second half of the year.
“It starts in the back end of the business. While we were waiting for the product to arrive, there’s a lot of work done in regards to the after sales business and investment through new dealer locations, upgrades to our existing facilities, and through our independent dealer network as well.
“We’re going to have what will be our biggest year for MAN, both truck and bus hitting the road.
“There’s lots of opportunity, lots of growth that we’re starting to see through the momentum of this and as we carry into 2025.”
It’s not just Australia that Derek and MAN are targeting, with the entire Asia-Pacific being a key growth area for their sales market.
New Zealand and Fiji are major development areas Derek says they are looking towards.
“The Asia-Pacific region is a very important one for us, in New Zealand in particular, where we’ve got a strong dealer network,” Derek says.
“Over the last number of years we’ve actually invested in two brand new Penske facilities over there. We’ve seen good growth with the MAN brand over there. With the TG3, we’ve got custom built product for that market, including the 8x4s.
“We’ve also seen sales to other regions in Asia Pacific, like Fiji, with customers over there. We’ve got a real good opportunity in that area to grow our business as well.”
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