Our MAN Retail operations will open a wholly-owned operation in Port Elizabeth. One of SA’s largest cities, Port Elizabeth has always been an important location on the Garden Route to offer support to our clients. Previously operated as a Private Capital location, MAN decided that it was the right time to re-in force its footprint by setting up this wholly owned location.
Adding to this, MAN Automotive has seen an significant increase in sales and market share and as a consequence to this announced plans which enable the expansion of assembly operations by approximately 50% compared to 2016.
As from 01st April 2018, the Assembly Plant will cater for end-of-line PDI checks (Pre-Delivery inspection), which are normally done at the various dealer points around the country. By definition, this means that MAN as an automotive supplier of commercial vehicles is able to offer ready-to-go solutions, from a centralised point – enabling improved consistency in quality and uniformity of standards.
Having such a central point also enables the MAN customer to make collections of their transport solutions from the Assembly Plant, in alignment with MAN globally. Similar to how the Brand operates globally. MAN’s ProfiDrive driver training is then provided as a standard service to such collecting customers.
An enabler to this move is the use of the MAN Branch facility adjacent to the Pinetown Plant. Supporting the network optimisation strategy which is taking place simultaneously, the normal MAN Retail operations will stop from this site, effective the 1st of April, 2018. We are confident that the remaining six dealers within KwaZulu-Natal will continue to offer customers with a variety of options to support their operations without any compromise to service levels.
We are absolutely sure that our customers will welcome these exciting developments – another milestone in our almost 60 year uninterrupted history in Pinetown.