BMW owners in South Korea can have their cars repaired faster and cheaper than before as BMW AG has opened its second largest regional distribution center (RDC) in the country after one in Germany to stay the best-selling import brand in Korea and elsewhere in Asia.
The German luxury carmaker’s local unit BMW Group Korea on Tuesday held a ceremony to mark the opening of its new distribution center in Anseong City in Gyeonggi Province, which is an hour’s drive from central Seoul.
It took 14 months and cost 130 billion won ($115.8 million) to complete building the center since the automaker broke ground March last year. The new distribution center, or RDC, with a floor area of 57,103 square meters (14.11 acres) that is eight times the size of a soccer field, consists of six buildings sitting on a site of 211,500 square meters. It is the largest BMW RDC outside Germany and also three times bigger than its first RDC in Korea, located in Incheon, Gyeonggi Province. The new Anseong BMW RDC can store 86,000 types of auto parts whereas the existing Icheon RDC can store some 35,000.
The automaker expected the new RDC will allow it to supply two million parts a year to dealers and customers. As the new center can stock double the volume of the old facility, it will help significantly reduce time to repair vehicles, said a BMW Group Korea official.
BMW Group Korea vice president Torben Karasek (Third from left), Wolfgang Baumann, vice president of BMW Group Parts Logistics Management and Kim Hyo-joon, chief executive of BMW Group Korea, on Tuesday attend the opening ceremony of a regional distribution center located in Anseong, Gyeonggi Province. (Photo by: BMW Group Korea)
BMW Group Korea plan to enhance the new RDC’s position as a hub of aftermarket service parts in the Asia-Pacific region through close coordination with other BMW offices in neighboring countries including China. The new RDC underscores BMW’s strong commitment to the Korean market, said Kim Hyo-joon, the chief executive of BMW Group Korea, adding that the new facility will allow not only quicker services for Korean customers but also cheaper options.
BMW is the most popular foreign car brand in Korea along with Mercedes-Benz. In April, it sold 6,334 vehicles in the country, becoming the best foreign car seller in the Korean import auto market.
The company expects the Anseong BMW RDC would create around 600 jobs in direct and indirect ways. It also plans to expand the facility on a site of 31,000 square meters next to the new center in 10 years, said the company.
If Eurasian railway begins operation in 2019, faster and more reliable distribution of auto parts would be possible complementing existing air and maritime transportation systems, the company expected.
By Woo Je-yoon
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Source: Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea (May. 31, 2017)