HYUNDAI Asia Resources Inc. (Hari) has invested P1.2 billion in a 10-hectare facility in Laguna, in a move to consolidate operations.
At the sidelines of the facility’s inauguration in Calamba, Laguna, Hari President and CEO Ma. Fe Perez-Agudo revealed the Korean automaker’s substantial two-phase development of a former textile facility.
“This is a 10-hectare property composed of two phases. We just completed the first phase, which costs P700 million and the second one will be about P500 million,” Perez-Agudo said.
The first phase consists of the logistics center for the firm’s backyard operations, warehouse operations and part of the training academy.
A car museum, the national training academy for technicians and workers, and a center for climate change will rise in the second phase slated to begin in early 2016.
The logistics center can store and maintain part of their inventory of imported vehicles in the facility, in addition to using the container yard at the Port of Batangas. The company pays P2 million a month for the parts warehouse and the rent for the yard.
“This is a way we could streamline our processes and become more efficient and productive,” Perez-Agudo said.
The stockyard of the logistics center can house 5,000 vehicles.
The Korean car brand suffered a 10.3-percent decline in sales in the first quarter of the year due to supply problems of its sales-driver models, such as the Starex and the diesel version of the Accent, plus the absence of car launches in 2014.
However, with the launch of two new models coinciding with the inauguration, Perez-Agudo expressed confidence Hari can notch a conservative 5-percent gain in sales over 2014’s performance.
Hari launched the i20 Cross sport and the compact sport-utility vehicle Hyundai Tucson.
Hari takes up 85 percent of the sales of Association of Vehicle Importers and Distributors (Avid). Avid is expected to garner the same tempered growth.
Catherine N. Pillas
Image credits: Tet Andolong