How Renalts budget brand has conquered the world: The launch of Dacia as a value brand has been a big success for Renault. Julian Rendell finds out why

摘要

When Renault president Louis Schweitzer announced the acquisition of Dacia in 1999, the response was muted. Best known as the 1980s purveyor of obsolete Renault 12s that made Skoda's offerings look positively upmarket, Dacia was the overlooked Romanian rump of the Communist era. How times have changed. Dacia is now the powerhouse of Renault's global expansion plans, helping to handbrake-turn the French car maker in the face of its depressed home market to head in a new global direction where 50 per cent of sales are outside the EU. "There's no doubt Dacia has been a huge success for Renault," says Colin Couchman, analyst at IHS Global. "The sales have come and so have the profits."