This just in – Groupe PSA has announced that it has awarded sole distributorship of its Peugeot brand in Malaysia to Berjaya Auto Alliance Sdn Bhd (BAASB). The latter is a joint venture between Berjaya Corporation and Bermaz Auto, which hold a 51% and 20% stake respectively.
The move, said the French conglomerate, would enable it to continue Peugeot’s growth strategy in the country. The company plans to release new models such as the latest Peugeot 2008, which has already been seen in spyshots locally. It also confirmed that Malaysia would remain the export hub for the Southeast Asian region.
“We aim to continuously revolutionize the customer experience together with our new partner, BAASB and underscore our commitment to our customers through excellent sales and aftersales service,” said Groupe PSA senior vice president for Southeast Asia Laurence Noel.
BerjayaCorp CEO Datuk Sri Robin Tan Yeong Chin added, “This new collaboration will complement our group’s existing automotive business, namely HR Owen and Berjaya China Motor. We believe this collaboration between BerjayaCorp, Bermaz and Groupe PSA will bring positive synergistic benefits to all parties.”
Bermaz executive chairman Datuk Seri Ben Yeoh said, “We are honoured that Groupe PSA and BerjayaCorp recognise Bermaz Group’s capabilities and expertise in the automobile industry and are delighted to participate in this new collaboration, which is expected to contribute positively to our future earnings base.”
Interestingly, the deal does not include the distributorship of the Citroën and DS brands, with the local consortium only obtaining the rights to provide aftersales and spare parts. This almost certainly spells the end of new car sales for the two marques in Malaysia.
The news comes after it was confirmed that Naza was to relinquish all three brands – as well as Kia – as it restructures its business. As yet, it’s unclear if Berjaya Auto Alliance will sweep up the Korean brand, but it’s understood that Bermaz is a frontrunner for the deal.
We should point out that beyond this joint venture, Bermaz is not directly affiliated with Berjaya. The current Mazda distributor was spun off after a management buyout in 2016.
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Once upon a time, Mazda and Peugeot used to be sold by the same company – Asia Motors
Yep, you’re right man… and now things are coming full circle again after five decades !
In the late 1960s, Peugeot and Mazda were one of only three foreign car companies which invested in a local plant (the third was Volvo). All the other local plants were mostly or entirely funded by the franchise holders such as Wearne Brothers, Inchcape, Capital Motor etc..
Beginning 1968, Mazda and Peugeot cars were assembled concurrently at the Asia Automobile Industries (AAI) plant in Petaling Jaya. The plant cost RM 6 million at the time, and Mazda and Peugeot each held a 36.4 percent stake in it, while the remaining 27.2 percent was held by Asia Motor, the franchise holder.
In the 70s, both Peugeot and Mazda were quite popular here (over 5 percent market share). Peugeot fared better than British car brands at the time with popular models like the 204 and reliable 504, and Mazda was the no.3 best-selling Japanese car brand here owing to their 1200 and shapely 808.
When Proton arrived, all other mass market passenger car brands scaled back or left the market entirely. By the late 80s, the Mazda franchise had switched to Cycle and Carriage and local assembly moved to Ford Malaysia’s AMIM plant in Shah Alam. However, Mazda fared much worse than most Japanese brands here in the 80s and 90s, as they weren’t strong on commercial vehicles.
Similarly, the Peugeot franchise changed hands in the 80s to a small company called Ibis Automobile, and later to the MBF Group in the 90s. Assembly ops shifted to Kah Motor’s Oriental Assemblers plant in Johor.
For a brief few years in the 2000s, Mazda and Peugeot were reunited again when Cycle and Carriage inherited the Peugeot franchise. But Cycle and Carriage would ultimately drop both franchises in 2008; Mazda went to Prima Merdu and Bermaz, while Peugeot went to Naza. Both brands went through a resurgence under their new franchise owners. But Peugeot quickly faltered while Mazda went from strength to strength.
All that brings us to the present day where both Peugeot and Mazda are reunited for the third time under Bermaz. Although local assembly will not be under the same roof as in 1960s, both Mazda and Peugeot plants are in Kedah, about an hour’s drive apart. Both plants even export to regional markets, with Mazda being our country’s most valuable car exporter for the past few years now.
Hopefully under Bermaz direction, Peugeot will become relevant again and reclaim its spot as a major mass market brand here. However, it will be hard to ignore the fact that unlike the 1960s, Mazda has come a long way as a car company, with products that can challenge the industry’s best. Mazda shares many of Peugeot’s USPs, i.e. unconventional and bold designs, style over practicality, an emphasis on ride and handling, sporting heritage etc.. So it remains to be seen how Bermaz will distinguish their Mazda and Peugeot franchises to prevent overlapping, while also keeping their principals in Japan and France happy.
Good luck to everyone involved, looking forward to seeing what comes next !
Exciting times indeed! where Naza had failed badly, Bermaz now driving the mighty axis from Japan, France and likely Korea. KIA
MAZDA build effort for their branding and strong makeover of tech offerings. BERMAZ just do the selling.
Expect berjaya will do nothing except selling. PEUGEOT global must sort out the product range themselves.
The PRINCE engine co-developed with BMW already been using since 2009. Even BMW also not using that faulty mill already
BERMAZ bossku Ben Yeoh grew hyundai 2,
Prince no longer been used for past 3-4 years. Present engine is Puretech.
Boss u do know Berjaya has the final say in everything and they don’t really have a good track record.
Mazda is not even doing well under Bermaz, what chances of revival does Peugeot has? The irony of it, imagine they can’t even revive their own brandname here, what are people thinking expecting them to try and revive Proton?
Are you drunk? Mazda stand on 6th best selling cars in Malaysia and it fall behind both national cars, Honda, Toyota and Nissan. Mazda is outperform Mitsubishi and VW who principle was presented in Malaysia but Mazda is distributed by Bermaz.
Among all brands in Malaysia Bermaz has created a symbol, when people think of Mazda they think of SUV. The whole global is moving from sedan to SUV and Bermaz has quickly grab the cake.
6th best selling for a mass market Japanese car is nothing to shout about, in fact Bermaz should be ashamed for such low volumes.
6th position is small fry bro. Aim for top spot or go home crying.
To Celup King, work harder so you can own a Mazda instead of bashing.
Even though peugoet sales in Malaysia is not withstanding to Mazda, but in the international scene both brands were more or less of the aame strength.
In 2018 Mazda sold 1.55 mil units of vehicles in total.
Peugoet sold 1.53 million units.
Both arent as good as Kia though, the Korean brand was in top 10 worldwide in 2019.
Kia is a good car but it was jeoperdized by Naza in recent years. The second generation of Naza not so keen on Kia and Peugeot.
Peugeot owns Vauxhall and opel. And soon, fiat- Chrysler. It’s one of the largest automakers on the planet. Current CEO used to work under Ghosn.
Good read, I give one like.
I hope they bring in e-208.
Next year can bring in DS 9 HYBRID?
Did you even read the article?? (Paragraph 6)
“Interestingly, the deal does not include the distributorship of the Citroën and DS brands, with the local consortium only obtaining the rights to provide aftersales and spare parts. This almost certainly spells the end of new car sales for the two marques in Malaysia.”
A previous version of the article did state that the Citroën and DS brands were part of the deal. That error has since been corrected.
now left kia without any taker. sigh… now customer really headache as parts cannot go out from warehouse. It just blunt stupidity on how naza let go kia
Perfect example of father established auto biz n sons spoilt biz,
He is not spoilt the business, Berjaya boss is the father in law of young Naza boss. So it is still a “father” business. Just moving the brand from left pocket to right.
For local good sake, lets sapot Drb hicom…
Tak sia-sia kite sapot local.. ayuh drb Honda.
Drb? Another joker. Look at their group of companies and tell me whether they are doing well or not.
Opsss, Kia is in trouble now. The first talk of Naza is letting go the Kia to Bermaz but end up thing change suddenly where Bermaz is officially taking Peugeot. In fact when rumour spreading Bermaz got intention to take over Kia brand it was in final stage of discussion, but last minutes Bermaz hanging the deal.
Kia is a good Korean car and hope maybe Sime Darby will consider to take over it and sell along with Hyundai. Both Korean brands can share the same assembly line since they are same company. This will reduce the cost of investment for both and able to achieve competitive selling price.
Yes, Bermaz should take Kia instead of Peugeot which is crap
the all new kia grand carnival, optima, sorento are so gooding, im sure it will sell well if priced competitively because design and spec wise they already win.
but peugeot new 508, 3008, 5008 are good looking too
Kia Carnival and Sorento are great cars but in Malaysia not many people keen for diesel engine. Even though Peugeot doing badly in Malaysia but recent years the 5008 and 3008 both are SUV contribute to the sales. As Bermaz successfully created the image of Mazda for SUV, it is easy for them to positioning the Peugeot SUV car into consumer’s mind.
good car indeed. my 8 yo forte still going strong. the brand needs more push here in MY.
Kia owners are left high and dry……So kesian
Bermaz has done really well with the entire selling to servicing for their cars hopefully it can also be translated to their incoming expansion with Peugeot. The horror stories of Peogeot owners lambasting Naza’s inadequacies are infamous but there is yet still hope. Best of luck Bermaz
I hope Berjaya will reconsider to take Suzuki distributorship next year
Hopefully the new agents can manage the brand better. Sometimes, a good brand suffers, just because the local agent is preoccupied with other businesses. Naza definitely bit more than it could chew.
Peugeot hv limited product to offer in msia. I m surprised bermaz choose Peugeot rather than kia.. Unless bermaz separately negotiate for kia without berjaya.
Msia market still dominate by perodua and proton. With honda and toyota following. High end though is still very much open tussle between merc, bmw. Volvo, audi and lexus.. Next level..
You make more money selling AP’s than selling cars I suppose.but the whole idea of creating AP’s was to get bumi into the car trade. It is clearly not working so scrap the AP’s and let consumer get cheaper cars.