Busy week for Porsche
Porsche’s retail strategy was on full display this week as the luxury brand officially opened two new stores and broke ground for a third dealership.
First up was the Policaro Automotive Family’s grand opening for the all-new Oakville Porsche roughly 40 minutes west of Toronto. The 60,000-square foot store is the largest for the brand in Canada and boasts a 22 vehicle showroom, a 15-bay service department, a detailing centre with five dry bays and three wet bays along with an indoor storage space with room for 20 cars.
Day-to-day operations will be managed by general manager Francesco Policaro, who told Canadian AutoWorld the group expects to retail between 400 to 450 new units in 2014.
A final price tag for the massive store was not revealed.
The next day, Porsche executives found themselves on the other side of the country helping open Porsche Centre Vancouver. Owned by the Dilawri Automotive Group of Companies, the store is the lone Porsche Centre located in Vancouver.
Both stores also marked the first use of the new global dealership image program for the brand in Canada.
“Vancouver is an important and growing part of Canada,” said Alexander Pollich, Porsche Canada’s new president and CEO. “This new Porsche Centre certainly has all the elements to successfully support and heighten the brand’s image in this market.”
On Friday, Porsche celebrated the ground breaking of yet another store, this time in Langley, B.C. Owned by OpenRoad Auto Group, the store will be built in the Langley Auto Collection auto mall. It is slated for completion sometime next year.
The growth in the retail network, which now tops 15 stores, has exploded of late with rooftops added in Winnipeg, Saskatoon and London, Ontario in recent years.
Laurance Yap of Porsche Canada said the growth mirrors the rise in sales volume over the same period. Last calendar year, Porsche sold a record 3,003 units in Canada.
