Kia is claiming huge strides in corporate sales, saying its dealers are doing brisk public sector and contract hire business.
Last year, more than 12,000 Rio, Sportage and Ceed models were bought by non-private customers.
“Overall, that means we saw a 37% increase in this area of business during 2013,” said Kia head of fleet and remarketing, John Hargreaves.
According to Kia, its 2010 public sector sales were “virtually zero”, but rose to more than 2500 units
last year. Over the same period, contract hire demand rose from 221 to 3200 units.
“Increasing business sales through our network has been central to our plan over recent years and we are now seeing a very strong return from the strategy,” said Hargreaves.
“We took the decision to carefully manage our sales into the big fleet channels such as daily rental and Motability, and we have provided support for our dealers to help them understand and maximise the local business possibilities and to compete effectively,” he said.
Hargreaves said that small and medium business sales had been especially strong, climbing by 30% last year.
Kia currently has 177 dealers. Its latest business figures exclude rental and Motability sales.
