Economic growth a key Al Nabooda's business success

K Rajaram, Al Nabooda Automobiles's chief executive, talks about why business has been so good.

Al Nabooda Automobiles is one of a number of companies to have registered a sharp rise in car sales so far this year.

Here, K Rajaram, the company's chief executive, talks about why business has been so good.

How has business been so far this year?

January to March 2012 compared to January to March 2013, my Audi sales are up 46 per cent and my Volkswagen sales are up 45 per cent in the same period. In 2013 we sold 678 Audis in the first three-month period and we sold 982 Volkswagens.

Why has business been so good?

I would hazard a guess it's our service and what we have done for our customers. The overall market itself is going up.

Why?

More people are coming in and the country is booming. It's a corollary of one leading to another.

But surely it must be down to more than that there are more people coming here?

The economy definitely is on its way up. You can see it in every aspect, in the retail sector. In the hotels sector. One thing leads to another. You have been reading in the papers regularly about how Dubai airport is number two [busiest in the world] and is poised to become number one. That leads to people coming in and people coming in leads to infrastructure being built and everything done to cater to it.

Are there any other factors influencing sales for Al Nabooda?

The reason, especially for Audi sales to go up was the opening of our new [showroom]. We are seeing that by giving the right type of infrastructure to the people, the footprint in my showroom is definitely going up. It has gone up tremendously. It is far over the 46 per cent.

What sort of growth are you targeting this year?

We are looking at an average growth of about 20 per cent or 25 per cent across the year, for all my three brands.

You haven't mentioned Porsche sales. How are they doing?

Because of the shortage of cars, that is the number of cars we get, there has been a growth but it was not as spectacular as Audi and Volkswagen.

What models have been the most popular?

In the Audi range it is our SUVs, the Q7, the Q5 and then in the saloon cars we have the Audi A8. They are our top sellers. And with Volkswagen it is. Also in Volkswagen the growth has been because we now have the new Passat and the new Jetta, which we are bringing in from America, so they are extremely well priced. And that is where we are gaining market share with those cars.

Could anything happen that could affect car sales?

At the end of the day you can never be insulated from the world. There will be [something] … But then all the signs are around the world that everything is heading the right way. Maybe Europe is a little in a dodgy situation but the Americas, the Bric countries, all of them are still recording growth and we hope to be in the same bandwagon.