UK PERFORMANCE specialist Mountune has expanded its global footprint with the opening of a service facility and logistics centre in Australia to serve the Oceania region.

It follows expanding sales in the region and the endorsement of its aftermarket ‘OEM+’ performance packages by Ford Australia and the Ford dealer network.

The company, which previously freighted products to Australian customers, has now established a base in Hobart, primarily for the Australian and New Zealand market but open to customers in South-East Asia.

It said that the Tasmanian outlet would “strengthen bonds with existing customers and dealers and reach out to legions of new automotive enthusiasts.”

The opening includes a dedicated mountune.com.au website and offers express delivery options and in-market technical support conducted in local time zones.

Mountune, based in Essex in England, is a race engine and automotive performance tuning specialist. Its branch in Hobart will offer a range of Mountune’s Ford and VAG (Volkswagen and Audi) performance parts for models including Fiesta ST, Focus ST and RS, Puma and Volkswagen Golf R and Audi S3.

The company claims more than 40 years in the business and “has amassed unrivalled knowledge of powertrain calibration and performance parts development, enabling it to offer market-leading, exceptionally well-rounded upgrade options.”

“Each Mountune performance package combines transformed, thrilling real-world performance with superb driveability and unrivalled reliability,” it said.

“The new division will offer Mountune’s full range of performance parts and upgrade packages, all exhaustively developed over the course of thousands of test miles by its UK-based engineering and development team.”

Company founder David Mountain said in a statement that “we’re delighted to announce our formal expansion into the Asia Pacific market with our new Australian facility.”

“Having already had a long-standing relationship with customers in the region – as well as a period where our upgrade packages were imported and endorsed by Ford AU dealers – establishing a physical base ‘Down Under’ was the natural next step.

“This move will enable Mountune to reach more customers than ever before in our key markets of Australia and New Zealand – both areas with significant and passionate performance car communities.”

The Australian business will be led by performance and motorsport enthusiast Tom Wallace who also has an extensive track record in the performance industry.

Mr Wallace said that setting up Australian operations means the company can improve on its customer experience which will be complemented by building a strong fitment/support program through dealer networks.

By Neil Dowling