Lexushall Vienna closes - or: The Death of Lexus Austria

Will1991

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Well, I think it's the exact opposite... Toyota decided this they weren't wasn't living up to expectation or sales goal and decided to part away.

They even say Toyota is looking for another partner, most surely a more aggressive one to drive up sales.
 

Levi

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I consulted for the Bank of Frey. Frey does not care about the brands, only about their own finances, so they are not brand focused. That is also the case with many other smaller distributors. In France for example more than half of Toyota dealerships are owned by the distributor that owns also the largest chunk of Mercedes-Benz dealerships and now a fair number of Porsche dealerships. This issue the dealerships do not have the right brand focused training, but rather a generic one which is not the best way of preparing and training the personal to sell more cars.
 

Sulu

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Here is the article, in English, courtesy of Google Translate.

Car dealer Frey closes locations in Vienna
Sales of the Toyota and Lexus brands will be discontinued at the end of the year. Social plan for employees.
by Anita Staudacher , Robert Kleedorfer


40 employees. One name that sounds less in the domestic automotive sector: Toyota Frey will close its two remaining locations in Vienna Inzersdorf and in the Danube city at the end of the year. The dealer announced on Monday.
The reason given was that the importer Toyota Austria had not given its approval for the continued sales of the Toyota and Lexus brands.
At the beginning of this year, the dealership partnership with Toyota Austria was extended for another four years. Frey did not want to comment on why this has now failed.
In any case, Frey was still the general importer for Austria himself until the end of 2018, before the company was more or less gently urged to hand over the business to Toyota Austria.
First closings
The beginning of the end took place in March when the houses in Amstetten and Auhof were closed. The Vienna Arsenal, Wiener Neustadt and Salzburg locations were also closed in September.
40 employees are now affected, there is a redundancy plan. For the distribution of Aston Martin and the Chinese brands MG and Maxus, measures for the continuation are to be taken shortly.
New dealers
After the closings, Toyota Austria now wants to find new dealers for sales and service. This has already been found in Salzburg with the AVAG group. Further locations in Vienna are planned.
AVAG is already represented at 26 locations in Austria and carries the brands Mercedes, Ford, Kia, Peugeot and Nissan. With 5,200 employees in seven countries and 180 locations, the Augsburg group sells around 130,000 vehicles a year. The annual turnover is around 2.4 billion euros.

Well, I think it's the exact opposite... Toyota decided this they weren't wasn't living up to expectation or sales goal and decided to part away.

They even say Toyota is looking for another partner, most surely a more aggressive one to drive up sales.
I understand from this article that Frey was the importer of the Lexus brand, until 2018, when the import responsibilities were taken over by Toyota Austria; Frey remained only as a owner of 2 dealerships, which are now closed but which Toyota Austria wants to replace. One new dealership, in Salzburg, has been selected and will be opening. Toyota Austria is still looking for a new dealership in Vienna.

I see this as a good sign. Toyota is now the importer of the Lexus brand and is selecting dealerships that are committed to the future of the brand.
 
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The Lexus Hall Vienna
 

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I see this as a good sign. Toyota is now the importer of the Lexus brand and is selecting dealerships that are committed to the future of the brand.
Not the first time Toyota has had to take over a third party distribution in other countries...but hey, perhaps they can make their Vienna sausages now with their own distribution channel, since VW makes their own currywurst.