Written by Norafiqah Jamal
Sime Darby is a key player in the Malaysian economy as well as a diversified multinational involved in key growth sectors, namely, plantation, industrial equipment, motors, property and energy & utilities, with operations in more than 20 countries. With a workforce of over 100,000 employees, Sime Darby is committed to building a sustainable future for all its stakeholders. It was established in 1988, Auto Bavaria, a division of Sime Darby which is the motors, it is the biggest retail and service organization for BMW, MINI and Motorrad in Malaysia. Sime Darby Motors is the automotive arm of Sime Darby Berhad and is involved in the retail, distribution and assembly businesses. It has a presence in ten countries across the Asia Pacific region. Over the years, Sime Darby has successfully built BMW into one of the most desirable luxury automotive brands in the country.
Today, Auto Bavaria’s nationwide network infrastructure comprises five branches, namely Glenmarie, Sungai Besi, Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Johor Bahru. Auto Bavaria Glenmarie and Penang also houses the BMW Motorrad and MINI showroom. In addition, the BMW Premium Selection centre is located in Glenmarie and Kuala Lumpur. Every Auto Bavaria branch is staffed with passionate professionals dedicated to providing world-class sales and aftersales service that exceed expectations. In benchmarking themselves against the best BMW dealers in the world, they make customer satisfaction the top priority at Auto Bavaria.
They record possibly the highest man-hours in training annually in the local automotive industry to keep the staff on top of the latest innovations and technologies and constantly review processes to improve efficiency. At Auto Bavaria, they are committed to making your BMW experience extend beyond your purchase. In Sime Darby, there are five divisions which are Industry, Property, Energy & Utilities, Plantation and Motors that are handling by Global Service Centre (GSC) that consist of GSC HR, GSC FA and GCS IT.
On May 2010, Sapura Auto was selling BMWs and MINIs in Malaysia were selling their showroom and land to Sime Darby Motor Division which operates the Auto Bavaria dealerships. Sapura Auto Sdn Bhd where the former acquire a piece of freehold land include the showroom with the facilities with cash around RM 50 million. Today, known as Auto Bavaria Jalan Tun Razak showroom.
So the challenges faces by Auto Bavaria are competition from international companies who had a same business as Auto Bavaria. The main challenge for this vehicle company is to find a way of achieving a sustainable competitive advantage over the other competing firms in a market. Auto Bavaria is a well-known company which have a lot of business in and out from Malaysia. But this firm must have strategic short and long term planning that involves managerial decisions and production in order to stay in this globalized market.