INFINITI Cars Australia product planning manager, Bernard Michel, has admitted that the location of the brand’s major Sydney dealership was ill-chosen, with Subaru now taking over the lofty East Sydney showroom minutes from the CBD.

Owned by the Suttons Group, Infiniti Centre Sydney opened in 2012 as one of the brand’s first three dealerships nationwide, in a high-end standalone showroom on William Street, East Sydney which was previously a Ferrari outlet.

Now, however, Suttons has shifted Nissan’s luxury offshoot brand to its Rosebery car yard, squeezed between its Holden, Fiat Chrysler and Hyundai dealerships, while shifting Subaru to the glossy East Sydney premises.

Mr Michel denied that Suttons’ shift from Infiniti to Subaru was a return on investment issue, relative to the rent outlay required in the city.

 

“Was it a good location?” he told GoAutoNews Premium at the national media launch of the Q60 Red Sport recently. “No, I don’t think so.

“It was in a very awkward spot just before the freeway (Eastern Distributor). The location wasn’t right for our brand and from a servicing perspective, customers were saying, ‘Yes, it’s central to the city but it’s actually taking me more time to get in and out of the place to service my car.’”

Mr Michel added that, in addition to a location issue, Infiniti was forgoing the benefits of “cross-traffic from other brands by having a standalone store, which was especially a problem for a brand still building its image.

“When you’re talking about a brand that’s still trying to embed itself, it needs as much flow-through traffic as possible,” he said.

“It was more about Suttons Group, having a very strong reputation with premium brands, they thought amongst their land of other brands that would be the right thing for where the brand’s at right now. For them it was about bringing it in with other brands.

“The general feedback is now they’re seeing more sales than ever and more people through the showroom, and that’s people who are perhaps going into the Holden dealership and coming outside and saying, ‘Infiniti, what’s that?’ It’s curiosity as well.”

He further pointed out that Infiniti Centre Sydney remained “the number-one dealership nationwide for new and used” sales, while insisting that Infiniti has a strong track record of attracting the right dealer groups to its brand.

“It’s about getting the right partners,” he said.

“Barbagallos, they’re renowned for luxury in WA, all premium cars. Peter Warren (Sydney south) has Mercedes-Benz, Suttons Group has Porsche and Land Rover.

“You can set up a network pretty quickly as you’ve seen with Opel, then dismantle it pretty quickly as well.”

By Daniel DeGasperi