A 'small car' brand quietly but convincingly on the rise

摘要

It has been a very good year for Suzuki. The Japanese manufacturer secured what it calls the treble' last year - hitting 33,000 units, 33% growth and a 0.3% movement in market share - and it recently posted a record Q1 performance of 11,520 units. Over the past few years, the UK has gone from being Suzuki's fourth-largest market in Europe to its biggest. Although other Japanese manufacturers were crippled by exchange rate problems, the majority of Suzuki's high-volume models were insulated from the worst effects. While the Kizashi, Grand Vitara and Jimny were affected by the exchange rate, most of Suzuki's volume in the UK comes from the Swift and Alto, which are not built in Japan. The brand's rise over the past three years has been largely under the radar, but it is now bigger than Mazda and Volvo and not far off Seat and Renault. Yet it continues to focus on working with owner-operated businesses and getting the basics right.