Date:08/12/2006 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/12/08/stories/2006120801622100.htm

Back BMW appoints Kun Exclusive as dealer

Our Bureau

Chennai , Dec. 7

BMW India has appointed Kun Exclusive as its dealership partner in Chennai.

According to a press release from BMW India, the subsidiary of the automobile manufacturer BMW Group, from the beginning 2007, Kun Exclusive will offer sales, service and spare parts facility.

Initially, Kun Exclusive will operate from an interim facility being set up at the Ambattur Industrial Estate. It has started work on a 20,000-sq-ft showroom integrated with an after-sales service facility and spare parts inventory. It will be able to service 20 cars a day and is expected to be ready by 2007 end, the release said.

Modern facility

According to sources in the know, Kun Exclusive hopes to set up the modern facility on Mount Road. It has invested more than Rs 1.5 crore on equipment, all of which are supplied by BMW from Germany. This is a part of their quality assurance, and everything "including drill bits," is coming from there, they said.

The emphasis on equipment and training is not surprising considering that the computer technology that goes into a BMW 7 Series is much "higher than that in Apollo 13 that landed on the moon." The dealership will handle `literally the entire BMW range' including the BMW 3 Series, and the 5, 6, and 7 Series, and the BMW X3 and X5 SUVs, the source said.

Intense training

The release, which quoted Mr Peter Kronschnabl, President, BMW India, said that Kun Exclusive has been provided with intense training in management of sales, service, spare parts and business systems. Service engineers have been trained at BMW's training centres in Singapore, Malaysia and Germany.

BMW India expects to commence business operations at the beginning of 2007, producing BMW 3 Series and BMW 5 Series saloons in petrol and diesel variants. The company has chalked out an extensive dealer strategy with 12 dealers in all the metropolitan centres by end of 2009. So far two intermediary dealers with three outlets represented BMW in India, the release said.