Malaysian carmaker sponsors British team to boost sales
Malaysian carmaker sponsors British team to boost sales
Agence France-Presse Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Malaysia's national carmaker Proton will sponsor English first division football club Norwich City next season and offer discounts in a bid to boost sales, a report said on Wednesday.
With some 35,000 club supporters, the sponsorship would give Proton cars the brand awareness and recognition they lack in Britain, Perusahaan Otomobil Nasional Bhd. (Proton) chief executive Mahaleel Ariff told The Star newspaper.
"What better way to do this than through football as we are the biggest investor in Norfolk," Mahaleel was quoted as saying.
To spur sales, a Proton spokesman said club members would be given a discount if they purchased Proton cars.
Proton in 1996 bought an 80 percent stake in Britain's Lotus Engineering Ltd. to boost its technological capabilities, and last year purchased the remaining 20 percent.
The deal, the biggest sponsorship in the club's history, was signed by Mahaleel and club chairman Roger Munby in Norwich on Tuesday, the newspaper said, adding the sponsorship was worth a seven-figure sum in pounds.
A statement from Lotus later confirmed the three-year deal.
"We are looking forward to building our name within the UK and our association with The Canaries will help us to do this," said Brian Collier, managing director of Proton Cars U.K.
Under the pact, the club will carry the Proton logo on its traditional yellow and green colors while the away kit in racing green will bear the Lotus brand, it said.
Norwich finished the current season in eighth position, missing out on a play-off for a place in the country's top division, the English Premier League.
News of the sponsorship boosted Proton shares by 6.15 percent to 6.90 ringgit (1.82 dollars) on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange Wednesday as investors bought the stock on the belief that it would boost sales, dealers said.
The sponsorship programme is part of Proton's efforts to expand exports ahead of the opening of the Malaysian car market in 2005 under the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Free Trade Area (AFTA).
Britain is Proton's single largest export market but sales overseas have been poor so far as it strives to establish its presence alongside other bigger, more established carmakers.
Proton has jointly with Lotus developed its own Campro engine to cut production costs by 20 percent.
It has recently ventured into China to sell commercial vehicles and is bidding for a licence to sell passenger cars there. It has a factory in Iran and plans to set up a plant in North Africa and possible South America.
Proton currently holds some 60 percent of the Malaysian market due to high tariffs on imported cars.
This protection will largely disappear under AFTA where tariffs fall to below five percent in January but Malaysia has obtained a reprieve for its auto industry until 2005 on the levies.