PhillyTablet Inquirer Daily News
Mobile
Home Delivery
philly.com
email
font size
options
 
Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Worst of times makes for the best of times for Subaru

Few will look back fondly on 2009, especially those in the U.S. auto industry.

One company that could is Subaru of America Inc., based in Cherry Hill.

In a year when U.S. auto sales fell 21 percent to 10.4 million units, Subaru’s sales rose 15 percent and the company raised its market share to 2.1 percent.

In all, Subaru sold 216,652 vehicles in 2009, up 15 percent from 187,699 in 2008. It was its best sales year ever, surpassing the 200,703 vehicles sold in 2006.

I asked Subaru chief operating officer Thomas J. Doll how the tiny Japanese automaker managed to swim against the current last year.

As Doll explained, there was no magic involved, just executing on their strategy and plans. Subaru introduced a redesigned Forester sport-utility vehicle in 2008 and new Legacy and Outback SUVs in the summer of 2009. There were no fire sales or mega-incentives offered to move metal.

“We know who we are,” Doll said. “We’re not a big mainstream player… If we can stay in these niches, we can carve out a nice market for our dealers.”

Unlike the industry’s wounded giants, Subaru was able to add to its 600-dealer base, broadening its footprint in the Sunbelt. Its Lafayette, Ind. factory actually added 150 temporary workers since August to augment the 2,770 workers assembling the Legacy, Outback and Tribeca.

Subaru of America employs 427 at its Cherry Hill headquarters and Pennsauken operations/service offices.

Doll said he hopes a more stable economy will keep the momentum going. Analysts have projected that total U.S. vehicle sales could rise to 11.5 million in 2010. Just by holding its 2.1 percent market share, Subaru would sell 240,000 units this year.

That’s not in the same league as General Motors, which sold 2.08 million vehicles in 2009, or comparable to the 1.77 million sold by Toyota Motor, which actually owns 16.5 percent of Subaru’s Japanese parent company, Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd.

But on surveying the massive highway pileup that was the U.S. auto market last year, it’s remarkable to see Subaru driving by with barely a scratch.

How could the stars possibly align better in 2010?

Doll didn’t blow the shift: “There’s always a next level.”
 
Posted by Mike Armstrong @ 2:05 AM  Permalink | File Under: Consumer Products | | Manufacturing | Post a comment
Comments   


0 comments
About Mike Armstrong
Mike Armstrong, a business editor and writer for nearly two decades, is the Inquirer's business columnist and PhillyInc blog editor. Contact Mike via e-mail or at 215-854-2980
Advertise Here