Volvo, Mack and UD a no-show for New Zealand truck expo

[kscarbel2]

Truck & Driver  /  June 2016

The showpiece of New Zealand’s new truck industry, the Transport & Heavy Equipment Expo held every 4 years, will disappointingly, be without a number of major truck brands next March*.

* http://www.theexpo.co.nz/

The Malaysian-based Sime Darby Group, which represents Volvo, Mack, Hino and UD trucks – together accounting for around 30% of all new trucks (over 4.5-tonne GVM) sold in New Zealand so far this year – has confirmed that it will not be present at the event.

Sime Darby Commercial Group’s NZ general manager Chris Brown has told New Zealand’s Truck & Driver that the stayaway call was “purely a commercial decision.

“I guess it’s like any other business decision we make: We look at the value – and, to be honest, with the cost of it we couldn’t see it working for us.

[kscarbel2]

Sime Darby wanted to "walk the walk" and be a Volvo Group commercial truck distributor.

However, when New Zealand's premier commercial truck event comes along (just once every 4 years), they don't want to pay to be there.

Paying to be in relevant commercial truck shows is a cost of doing business as a distributor.

I'm guessing Volvo usually pays a portion of the show costs as goodwill, but bleeding heavily at the moment, they refused. And Sime Darby was unwilling to man up and pay for it. The irony is that Malaysia-based Sime Darby is loaded (http://www.simedarby.com/).

"If you want to play, you have to pay"