OREANDA-NEWS. Multi brand dealer "Eurosib" stops the work with brand Ford after seven year cooperation.

As the company informed the newspaper "Kommersant", the dealership "Euro Motors" at Pulkovo Highway (the part of the group "Eurosib" since 2008) stops the work at the end of January of 2015, but the dealer will continue to provide authorized services to brand owners.

Strategy for further development of the showroom with area of 2.8 thousand sq. m is planned to be announced in the near future, said in the company. "We plan to focus on the development of car sales of premium segment, including the opening of new dealerships," - says General Director of "Eurosib Auto-UK", Alexei Artamonov. - As for Ford, the brand is no longer occupies a leading position in the market of St. Petersburg, as it was two or three years ago. In addition, at the moment we do not see the technical possibility of increasing of our share in total sales in the city. "The share of "Euro Motors" in total sales of Ford in St. Petersburg for the last four years almost did not change, which is about 6%.

The company "Eurosib" is the official dealer of BMW, MINI, LandRover, Jaguar, Volvo, Mazda, Ford and it is presented in St. Petersburg by the network of seven showrooms. In 2016, "Eurosib" plans to open the new BMW dealership with area of more than 10,000 square meters on the waterfront of Obvodny Canal.

According to the analytical agency "Auto-Dealer-SPb", in 2014 in St. Petersburg, sales of Ford for the first 11 months fell by 22% to 9.6 thousand cars. The CEO of "Auto-Dealer-SPb", Michael Chaplygin, noted that Ford is not in the best position for several years because of an outdated model range. However, it is often problematic to convert showroom under a different brand: the majority of locations are already occupied by the popular brands, he said.

With the departure of "Eurosib" from the business of Ford, it will be eight showrooms of brand, which are managed by five dealers, in the city: "Rolf", "Alarm-Motors", "AutoField", "TDV-Auto", "Maximum". The general director of the "Alarm-Motors", Roman Slutsky, said that the Ford brand has about 70% of the company's business. "After many years of success in the Russian market, the Ford brand had not easy in recent years", - he says. - The main reason for the drop in sales was the protracted for several years changing of model line. Today Ford is in shape again. The next bestseller - Ford EcoSport - appeared on sale. Ford Kuga could oust significantly its competitors this year in the class of medium-sized urban crossovers. The new Ford Transit is also on sale and it is one of the most popular commercial vehicles in Russia. The next year is the start of new models of Ford Fiesta, Ford Focus and Ford Mondeo. All Ford models are manufactured in Russia - it is very important in the current reality. So there are good prospects ahead".

Ford declined to comment the situation, stressing that the initiative of sales closing in the showroom came from the dealer.