Suzuki Plans to Expand U.S. Dealerships, Grow Sales

Suzuki Motor Corp., the Japanese affiliate of General Motors Corp., said it aimed to expand its U.S. dealership network next year by 30% to 600 outlets to help reach an annual sales target of about 200,000 cars in 2007.

Suzuki, the maker of Grand Vitara sport utility vehicles, is expanding its dealership network to make more sales to individual buyers, company spokesman Mitsuyasa Tazawa said by telephone from the company’s headquarters in Shizuoka, near Tokyo. The move would reduce Suzuki’s reliance on corporate customers.

The company’s U.S. headquarters is located in Brea.

Fleet sales to rental car companies pushed the company’s U.S. unit to an operating loss of $32.6 million in the first six months of the year, contrasted with a profit of the same amount a year earlier, Tazawa said.

Tazawa confirmed a report by Japan’s Nihon Keizai newspaper about the dealership expansion, and clarified that the sales target of 200,000 vehicles was to be met in the next five years.

Suzuki expects to sell about 70,000 cars in the U.S. this year, Tazawa said. Suzuki’s U.S. sales fell by 10% to 54,000 units for the year to Nov. 30 compared with the same period a year earlier, according to a statement on the company’s website.