Mazda Prioritises Scottish Customers with the Added Benefit of a Reduction of Traffic and CO2

•Deliveries of Mazda cars direct to Rosyth commenced in January

•Mazda’s Scottish customers take delivery of their cars earlier

•CO2 reduced by 493 tonnes per annum

•Over a quarter of a million miles saved on transporter deliveries

•Mazda becomes biggest car customer for Rosyth port

Following an extensive review of Mazda’s car delivery network in the UK Mazda has moved delivery of cars for Scotland out of Grimsby into Rosyth, resulting in a reduction of 493 tonnes of CO2 per annum and 280,000 delivery miles.

The deliveries into Rosyth started with Norfolkline on the 4th January, reducing the delivery time to customers by 24 hours. With a forecast of over 6,000 cars transiting through the port in 2010 Mazda has become the biggest car importer to Scotland.

The introduction of the new service means that deliveries from port to dealer are now less than three hours journey time to eighty percent of the Scottish mainland dealers who between them account for over ninety percent of Scottish registrations.

“Scotland is our single most successful market in the UK,” commented David Rodriguez, Head of Sales Planning and Distribution for Mazda UK. “On average we sell more cars per dealer than anywhere else in the UK, but delivery time to the dealers was the highest for any UK dealer. With an increasing volume of Mazdas in Scotland we were faced with having to increase the number of lorry journeys which in turn would have led to a greater CO2 footprint, and it was these three factors that were the catalyst for change.

“Norfolkline had just started a regular service into Rosyth and seemed the perfect solution: Our customers get their cars a day earlier, we reduce our CO2 footprint by 493 tonnes of CO2 per year and with 280,000 fewer miles travelled by lorry we have done a small amount for reduced traffic congestion.” Year over year Mazda’s market share and dealer representation in Scotland has increased and Mazda currently has 18 sales points with some of the best dealer facilities in the UK.

With sales of 6,642 in 2009, Mazda’s market share in Scotland was 3.64 percent, up fractionally on 2008’s share of 3.63 percent. Scotland is Mazda’s most successful region and with the number one retail dealer - Machargs in Glasgow - at the forefront of this performance, it made a key contribution towards Mazda’s 2.4 percent share of the UK market as a whole. The Scottish market accounted for nearly 14 percent of total Mazda registrations in 2009 and Mazda notably took more than five percent of the Scottish market in December with sales of 664 units.

This sort of performance is reflected in Mazda’s sales to private buyers where volume for the year was up more than seven percent over 2008 and Mazda’s share of the retail market was a very healthy 5.2 percent.