Supply issues force Ferrari pre-owned focus

FERRARI Australasia will expand its pre-owned sales strategy as it prepares for the possibility of decreased supply due to rising European demand.

Speaking at the 2016 Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, Singapore-based Ferrari Far East Hub CEO Dieter Knechtel told GoAuto that Australia has been able to pick up supply from the downturn in Europe, but that beneficial situation may not continue.

“In the Asia-Pacific the last few years we took advantage of the markets that were not performing as strongly in the past (to secure volume),” Mr Knechtel said.

“But now Europe is coming up again (and) we’re seeing development in Italy, France, Spain, Germany, where there’s a momentum,” he added.

“In past years the markets in the Asia-Pacific we have been allowed to get a bit more production to allow a bit more growth, but now with this new situation we have to balance globally again (and) there is not more production coming compared with what has been planned.”

Ferrari sales in Australia in 2015 totalled 167 units, an increase of 47.8 per cent over 2014 and eclipsing its 2008 sales record by four vehicles. Last year marked the third year of growth for the Italian marque locally, rising steadily from 98 sales in 2012 – the first year it dipped below triple-digit volume since 2005.

With 60 per cent of Australian purchasers last year new to the Ferrari brand, Mr Knechtel said he is willing to credit the California T as having “helped in regions where we are reaching out for first-time buyers of Ferrari and people who haven’t thought about buying a Ferrari previously.”

However, Mr Knechtel is aware that mid-range models such as the recently released 488 GTB remains a mainstay for the brand. The introduction of the new model has resulted in “across the globe a very high demand for the 488 range”.

“We cannot put at our disposal as many cars as we would like to (so) wait list management is one of these topics to Ferrari that is very important,” he added.

“Our general aim is to keep if possible wait lists below one year. In the case of 488 that is a bit more complicated right now.”

With demand for new vehicles stretching supply availability, Mr Knechtel said the strategic opportunity for Ferrari in Australia now lies with its management of pre-owned vehicles.

“If we cannot deliver a car to buyers as fast as they want, we have to look at how we balance that, maybe we can do a bit more pre-owned sales,” he explained.

“One of the big pillars to our strategy to give Ferrari experience, first-time experience, with the pre-owned car, it (pre-owned management) is a strategic topic in the Asia-Pacific and also Australia because we believe it is giving a lot of value to the brand.

“The pre-owned strategy is actually very much about maintaining the values of the cars and taking care of this, so we want to keep the cars in the Ferrari network, know about the cars and in which condition they are in and then offer something for those customers.

“We have taken over the import business in Australia a couple of years ago, now we also have probably with this new structure the ability to steer that strategy directly into the market.”

Mr Knechtel also remarked that dealerships “understand the value and necessity of this business” and are “very much” on board with its pre-owned strategy.