Gulf Construction Online - UD Trucks posts solid growth in Meena region

Manufacturers & Procurement

A total of 118 Questers and Croners were sold to Lavajet in the UAE.

UD Trucks posts solid growth in Meena region

01 February 2020

UD Trucks, a Japanese truck manufacturer and part of Volvo Group, registered solid growth across the Middle East, East and North Africa (Meena) region last year.

The launch of the new, heavy-duty Quester, a series of major fleet deals and the announcement of a new retail partner in Saudi Arabia were among the key highlights of 2019 as UD Trucks enjoyed another positive year across the Meena region.

Against the backdrop of extremely challenging economic conditions, the Japanese commercial vehicle brand recorded sales increases in a number of key markets, in particular the UAE, Kuwait and Oman.

In the UAE, UD Trucks sales were up almost 10 per cent year-on-year, despite the overall market shrinking. It was a similar story in Oman, with the market down but UD Trucks registering 10 per cent growth.

As a market, Kuwait bucked the regional trend with truck sales increasing, helping UD Trucks to an impressive doubling of sales, said the Japanese truck giant.

The company maintained its number one position in Bahrain, while reinforcing its position in Qatar as the number one brand in the Japanese truck segment and number three brand overall, including the European manufacturers.

UD Trucks pointed out that 2019 was very much a year of transition for the group in Saudi Arabia. Following a mutual agreement to terminate its collaboration with Rolaco Group, the brand’s previous partner in the kingdom, UD Trucks announced Zahid Tractor as its new exclusive importer and distributor in the kingdom.

With the start of this collaboration between the two firms, and underpinned by the ambition and professionalism of Zahid Tractor, 2020 is set to be an excellent year for the brand as it seeks to continue its growth and take customer satisfaction to a higher level, said the company.

Central to UD Trucks’ strong regional performance in 2019 was the Middle East arrival of the New Quester in April. Building on proven robustness and reliability, New Quester has introduced key features such as Escot automated manual transmission, engines with higher horsepower and user-friendly telematics to deliver greater fuel efficiency, productivity, driver efficiency, safety and uptime for customers.

The new Quester and medium-duty Croner, both of which are designed and engineered especially for the region, have been in high demand and were at the heart of the numerous major fleet deals that peppered the year, it stated.

In September, the Kuwait Municipality took delivery of 106 Quester and Croner models for waste management use, while in the same month UD Trucks signed its first-ever deal for 20 Quester 8x4 mixers with Oryxmix in Dubai.

A further 118 Questers and Croners were sold to waste management company Lavajet in the UAE and 25 to Oriental Trading Company in Qatar, with many other similar agreements signed across the GCC and East Africa, it added.

Mourad Hedna, the president of UD Trucks Meena, said: “In 2020 we will continue our strategy to grow by reinforcing our market share in countries where we are already present and by entering a number of new markets. Our objective always has been, and always will be, to deliver the highest standards of customer service because this is the only way to guarantee sustainable growth in the long-term.”

“We will continue to do this by collaborating closely with our regional partners while simultaneously remaining focused on that most valuable human capital: our employees,” Hedna added.