Interview with Fiat-Chrysler exec on Alfa in Arabia
We speak to Jerome Monce, the commercial operations Director for Middle East and Africa
By Shahzad Sheikh
Alfa Romeo isn’t new to most markets in the Middle East, it’s been here a while. But it’s never really been a big seller. The arrival of the new Giulietta (read my first drive review here) and the revitalised Mito marks something of a relaunch for the brand to the region.
But why should things be different this time? Whilst on the recent Alfa Romeo Giulietta launch in the UAE, we got the opportunity to talk with Jerome Monce, Director for Commercial Operations, Importers and Extra-European Markets for the EMEA Region, and asked him about this.
Of course the key difference is that this time the Fiat and Alfa brands are married to the Chrysler group, whose brands are of course popular in many of the region’s markets, and Monce is quick to emphasise the strategic benefits of integrating Fiat and Alfa operations into the existing Chrysler regional office setup.
‘We have a strong presence and a strong network with Chrysler,’ said Monce, ‘so we have to leverage that.’
‘The mistake we made in the past is that we thought we could manage the world from a Turin office, that is absolutely not true, you have to realise that you need to be near to your customer base and your dealer base.’
I raised the concern of many previous Alfa owners regarding poor sales and after sales service from dealers that were perhaps less than passionate about this highly emotional product. Whilst he admitted that ultimate they would go as far as finding a ‘more convenient partner to try and take on the business and grow the business’, he was keen to take the far nobler path of shouldering the blame for poor sales and service on the manufacturer itself.
‘If you look at dealers that are maybe not so successful you have to wonder whether that lack of success if driven by our inability to have the right products at the right price with the right service in the region, and first of all we need to fix what we have as a group which is what we are doing.’
Which is to get the cars mechanically right and to this end he cites the all-new six-speed double-clutch automatic as part of the key game-changer for Alfa Romeo in the region. Admittedly their previous auto offerings have been of the automated manual and rather clunky variety.
‘The TCT [Twin Clutch Transmission] is an excuse to come back to this market and say – hey, try it, it’s fun. It’s a dry clutch system so it take away the weight [of built in cooling system] and gains efficiency.’ Without the new gearbox he admits they would not have much a fighting chance.
However unfounded perceptions about the evils of downsizing might also prove a handicap for the new Giulietta. It’s priced between AED101-117k ($27.5-32k) yet comes with a ‘just’ a 1.4-litre four-cylinder engine.
Having said that it’s a turbocharged ‘MultiAir’ unit that produces 170bhp and feels pretty punchy from behind the wheel, nonetheless Monce admits that it was a long discussion about whether the new generation of ‘downsized’ engines were right for this market. Some parts of the world might not share Europe’s conviction in the concept of ‘downsizing’ he admits, but to combat that attitude, the emphasis will be on the ‘DNA’ values of Alfa Romeo, such as being lightweight and fun to drive.
‘The car attracts the eye, it’s fun, sporty and conveys something a little different. We do realise that we’re going to have to explain what this car is doing with this size of engine, but the answer to that is to be strong in getting test drives to potential customers.’
Besides, as he correctly says, downsizing is sea-changing that is happening now globally and we’d better just get used to it, as more and more manufactures go smaller but don’t necessarily compromise on performance and power.
Similarly this ‘relaunch’ for the region is part of a greater global plan that will see Alfa Romeo return to the US market, with the highly anticipated new sports car, the Alfa 4C, with more surprises to come in 2015-16 – ‘there is a lot more coming where the synergies with Maserati will become more obvious.’
But how do you instil the uniquely evocative brand values of the illustrious marque in a market that is perhaps not as familiar with Alfa Romeo as European markets. ‘The network will be the web,’ confirms Monce, ‘this is younger market, a new generation, but we believe youngsters will connect pretty rapidly given the shape of the car and iconic values of the brand.’
‘We’ve got very good results in South Africa where the market is similar, and likewise in Australia, and we believe Alfa has a cleaner, neater image once you get out of some of the countries where it’s been present, where unfortunately some of the products that we did 20 years ago did not live up to expectations. So on average we anticipate in the Middle east, it’s going to go pretty viral.’
What do you think are Alfa’s chances in the region – tell us below?
I think that the size of the Giulietta’s engine will not encourage customers to buy the car especially in the gulf where the bigger the engine the better due to less expensive gas prices plus with this price, customers are more prone to buy a Japanese car or a Korean car with half the price and similar power and performance. I think Alfa should really focus on more performance rather than only luxury