Bmw

ompany News Alert - BMW Unveils Strategy For Growth

Europe - Companies - 05 Oct 2007

BMW has declared its intention to become the world's leading premium carmaker by 2020. The German manufacturer recently unveiled its strategy for growth, putting a clear focus on cost-efficiency, profitability and the development of the group's product range. Unlike other European carmakers bidding to become market leaders via the mass market, BMW will seek to surge past rivals such as Mercedes and Lexus to lead a segment it expects to grow by around 40% over a 14-year period.

According to company sources, BMW's Efficient Dynamics programme is based on a principle of 'more output for less input'. In line with this strategy, the carmaker is bidding to boost production up to 2012 without actually increasing the number of workers it employs. In addition to stepping up production in the US and China, BMW is expected to raise capacity at its plant in Oxford, Great Britain to some 260,000 units. As Germany's second biggest luxury carmaker BMW has already cheered industry representatives this year by announcing it would be transferring production of its next generation Z4 vehicle out of the US and into Germany. According to industry sources, the carmaker will switch production of the Z4 from Spartanburg in the US to Regensburg, Germany. In September the manufacturer also unveiled plans to invest EUR100mn (US$141.11mn) to expand its Leipzig plant, located in the East German state of Saxony.

BMW is seeking a sizeable return on its business. In line with an increase in global sales - the carmaker is eyeing car sales of over 1.8mn units by 2012 - BMW is targeting a return of up to 10% by 2012. With respect to the long-term, BMW will seek to boost sales to more than 2mn units by 2020. The carmaker's performance so far this year on its biggest