Yesterday, Suzuki Canada Inc. announced that it is realigning its business interests, with the aim of winding down automotive operations and focusing instead on its motorcycle, ATV and Marine divisions. The last Suzuki passenger cars sold in Canada will be 2014 models.
Back in November 2012, SCI’s U.S. counterpart, American Suzuki Motor Corporation. filed for bankruptcy, shutting down its automotive operations and entering into court-supervised restructuring. At the time, remaining Suzuki automotive dealers in the U.S. were instructed to sell existing vehicle inventory and begin the transition to service, warranty and parts centres.
American Suzuki said that it had chosen to wind down its automotive operations and focus on the long-term growth of its motorcycle, ATV and Marine business due to “a review of its current opportunities in the U.S.”
With that announcement, industry observers wondered how much longer Suzuki would continue to market cars in Canada, given that both countries share similar (and tough) safety and emissions regulations when it comes to new vehicles and a much smaller population base can make selling cars exclusively in Canada a tough and rarely viable economic proposition.
And so, almost six months after the fact, Suzuki Canada Inc., appears to be following a similar strategy to its American counterpart — however there are some differences. Unlike the U.S., SCI has said that there will be no court-supervised restructuring and that the firm will continue to meet its financial and contractual obligations.
Suzuki Canada also emphasized in an official statement that it will continue to work with its Canadian dealers to provide “a smooth transition from new automobile sales to exclusively warranty and service operations.” SCI also said that it will be allocating a transition period of 12 months and during that time “will continue to import and distribute new automobiles to meet the continued demand of its dealers and customers.”
