VW following in BMW’s tracks
Johor is an attractive region for German vehicle makers to do business. Four years ago BMW entered the scene; now Volkswagen has followed suit and set up a distribution centre in Malaysia’s southern-most state. It will serve 21 national markets from there.
Collaboration is the name of the game. In 2018 the Volkswagen Group began to shift its regional customer service centre north from Singapore into the city state’s neighbouring country, which improved distribution efficiency by 15%. In Malaysia the German car manufacturer benefits from tax breaks and is accorded import and export support. The extension of its partnership with the Malaysian Development Investment Authority (Mida) coincides with the launch of operations in VW’s new regional distribution centre there.
The facility, which was opened in the Tanjung Pelepas free-trade zone in mid-January, covers around 50,000 m2, which means it can store and subsequently distribute more than 65,000 original parts for VW’s Audi and Skoda units as well as its cars and lorries. The gateway is located close to some of global commerce’s most important maritime trade routes; it also offers good overland links and is close to major airfreight interfaces.
Nature and technology
The head of the VW Group’s after-sales unit, Roman Havlásek, thanked Mida for its commitment to the project – despite the outbreak of Covid-19. VW augments natural advantages with its technical know-how, with semi-automated warehousing systems and value-adding services, such as re-packing and re-labelling for retailers.
YB Dato’ Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali, Malaysia’s minister for international trade and industry, said that VW is following an ongoing trend, with ever-more companies setting up new global or regional distribution centres in the country – especially firms from the life sciences and medicine sectors, as well as from the electronics, mechanical engineering and automotive industries. In 2017 the BMW Group led its competitor in this context, he pointed out, when it started operations in a EUR 27.5 million distribution centre in the Johor Bahru airport free-trade zone, in the capital of the Malaysian federal state of Johor, opposite Singapore.
