DriveRight Data, an independent global automotive, wheel and tire data provider, has appointed Ji Hyun Kim as sales manager to South Korea to support its recent global expansion into new markets.
Kim has worked in the automotive industry for 17 years, with extensive experience from supply chain to distribution chain specializing in marketing, sales and business development. He has worked for some of Korea’s largest vehicle manufacturers in B2B and consultancy roles and has a proven track record in managing sales networks in overseas markets. Kim will be based in Seoul.
Toward the end of 2015, DriveRight Data embarked on a campaign to expand its international presence within emerging markets. Backed by a six-figure investment from Finance Wales in September the company has already fulfilled plans to establish new business units within the U.K. and U.S. and the company says this appointment to South Korea is the precursor for the next phase of expansion.
Korea has become the fifth largest market in the global automotive industry, measured by local production and export volume, respectively. The export market grew between 8 and just over 9 percent during the past two consecutive years along with a marked increase of 260,000 imported vehicles in the past year – an increase in growth for the seventh consecutive year.
DriveRight Chief Marketing Officer Sacha Hold commented, “The rapid growth within the vehicle industry in South Korea presents great opportunities for the aftermarket market, particularly with the non-domestic brands that are entering the country. We have a global support network available for our clients, so naturally it was imperative to extend this to South Korea and Ji Hyun Kim will provide this extra depth in our support offering.”
Requests for Parc Data on the Increase
DriveRight Data also reported that South Korea is the latest region to join the emerging trend of rapidly growing markets requesting customized parc reports.
The company has seen a large number of corporations seeking effective business intelligence to gain a commercial advantage in increasingly competitive markets. Parc reports are generated with regional vehicle registration volumes obtained from local governing bodies, refined by postcode zoning or similar where available.
DriveRight Data says it is able to further enhance its parc reports, matching vehicles to OEM and aftermarket fitments, including OE wheels and tires, aftermarket options and plus and minus size fitments. General TPMS data including which OEM, aftermarket or aftermarket-universal sensor fits a vehicle also can be added to the report.
The company believes the benefits are vast, with retailers able to base sales campaigns or inventory levels on the number of vehicles in a particular region, providing marketing departments with the ability to more accurately forecast with a well-defined target market, reducing wastage due to the “shotgun marketing” alternative.
Inventory controllers are able to more accurately determine stock levels for post-production and make more positive assumptions for current model vehicles.
DriveRight has the ability to provide data resolution to the level of model variants for a global database of vehicles manufactured from 1985-2015 and European vehicles from 1954.
Parc reports are available for countries in Europe, Asia and Oceania, North and South America and Africa.
