Alfa relaunch aims high

Alfa Romeo’s new local chief is counting on performance, technology, Italian heritage and a move “upscale” to deliver a successful relaunch for the iconic automotive brand in Australia.

And a dealer network that will shrink in number, shift from many current locations and also go “upscale” to improve the customer experience is part of the overhaul.

The essential Alfa Romeo target is BMW, as global Fiat Chrysler Automobiles' global boss Sergio Marchionne made clear in January.

“We are definitely taking the brand a lot further upscale than it exists today and that is going to require a different mindset, a lot of different thought and absolutely a different approach,” declared FCA’s Australian president and CEO Pat Dougherty.

“I think the brand heritage is what is going to carry the day,” he added. “Will we have to fight for that business? Absolutely. But it think that product is going to carry the day.”

Alfa’s Australian reboot begins this month with the launch of the focussed 4C sports coupe, while a Spider version comes late in 2015. But it really kicks into gear in 2016 when the first of up to eight all-new rear- and all-wheel drive models start rolling into Australia.

That first car, a BMW 3 Series rival commonly referred to as Giulia – although Alfa hasn’t confirmed that name — will be unveiled in Milan on June 24 as the centrepiece of the company’s 105th birthday and museum restoration celebrations.

It will be followed through to 2018 by a VW Golf-fighting small car to replace the Giulietta, a large BMW 5 Series rival, two SUVs and a sports coupe and spider. All of them — including the small car — will be based on a new rear- and all-wheel drive platform dubbed ‘Giorgio’ that has strong ties with the Maserati Ghibli architecture.

Engines will be four- and six-cylinder turbo-petrol and diesel, while sedans are also expected to spawn Sportwagon and four-door coupe variations. The Quadrifoglio Verde (QV) sports sub-brand will also assume a higher profile. Also look out for a V6-powered 6C sports car at some stage in the next few years.

The comprehensive five billion Euro product overhaul is intended to lift global sales from an all-time low of 74,000 in 2014 to 400,000 in 2018, as part of the Fiat Chrysler Group’s drive from 4.4 million to seven million sales.

In Australia, the soon-to-be-defunct Mito mini and Giulietta hatchbacks – hitherto the only two Alfa models on sale here -- generated 2498 sales, or about four per cent of global volume, making Australia a sizeable Alfa market.

But Dougherty insists there has been no discussion of future sales expectations in Australia.

“We haven’t talked about volumes at all -- or share,” he said. “It’s going to be product by product – the expectation could be two per cent or six per cent.

“The main thing is to make sure we have the right product strategy, the right branding in the marketplace, we have the right representation and those representative points and how we go to market are true to the brand.

“And if we have the right players in place then we believe the sales will follow.”

Dougherty said that the Australian subsidiary had still not been made  privy to the detailed planning surrounding the product overhaul and was therefore only in the early stages of mapping out just how the relaunch and roll-out would be executed.

But he was clear about the foundations it would build on.

“I think it’s the three tenets … It’s the styling, the passion that goes with the brand, it’s clearly performance and we are going to have a great level of technology in the vehicles so those are the things we are going to say that can differentiate us.”

Alfa Romeo currently has 60 dealers in Australia but Dougherty said the overhauled network could drop to 50 or less depending on current studies and who is prepared to invest to support the brand.

“We need to shrink it (the size of the network) because the brand is going significantly upscale to a prestige brand and if you look at the prestige players in the marketplace, they have between 40 and 50 points out there.

“The dealers who want to represent the brand are going to have to invest in order to deliver the experience the customer is going to want. It has to be the type of facility that represents the brand well and meets their expectation.

“That needs to be timed somewhat closely with having the product that can pay back the investment, so we are trying to co-ordinate a timeline that says this is when it makes sense.”

Dougherty said dealer location was another issue: “We are not in all the right locations in the metro markets, but we are in all the right metro markets.”

And, of course, providing the proper ‘customer experience’ is part of the plan.

“You call in and you have an issue with your Alfa. The person who took that call is going to be the same person that you are going to talk to the whole time, right through until getting what you need completed,” said Dougherty.

“We need to make sure we have clean hand-offs, that the customer experience is not inconvenienced and time is critical. Your time is valuable and we want to prove that we know that.”