Coscharis Motors Plant Wins Outstanding Auto Assembling Company Award
Bennett Oghifo
It was another brilliant outing for one of the leading auto giants in Nigeria, Coscahris Motors Plc through its local assembly arm of the business, Coscharis Assembly Plant as it carted home the award of the Outstanding Auto Assembling Company of the Year at this years’ Marketing Edge 10th anniversary Summit and Awards held in Lagos, recently.
Coscharis Assembly Plant, which is a Semi – Knocked Down (SKD) plant located at the group head office of Coscharis Group at Awoyaya, Lagos, currently assembles iconic brands like the Ford and Renault. Specifically, the plant assembles the Ford Ranger, Renault Duster and Logan respectively.
Receiving the award on behalf of the Company, the General Manager, Marketing and Corporate Communications, Coscharis Group, Abiona Babarinde dedicated the award to customers that believed in the locally assembled vehicles produced from the plant with their patronage over the years. In his words, “this award is to reconfirm the pedigree of Coscharis Motors as a leading player to reckon with when it comes to setting standards in the automotive industry in Nigeria. This is another confirmation and endorsement by the marketing media sector as pace setter of Coscharis’ positive contribution to the growth of the automotive industry in Nigeria. This award is dedicated to all our numerous customers for their patronage and also to our partners (Ford and Renault brands) for believing in us to deliver locally assembled vehicles in our country that meets the global standard of their various brands”.
The Coscharis Assembling Plant remains one of the surviving local assembly plants in Nigeria despite the challenging business environment. The Company has resolved to turn all the challenges to opportunities in delivering local contents by way of setting standards when it comes to local assembling of respected automobile brands in Nigeria for Nigerians at affordable prices without compromising the global standard and quality.
Coscharis Motors Plc started the assembly of Semi –Knocked Down (SKD) vehicles in 2015 when the Nigeria government introduced the New Automotive Policy. It started temporarily at their Ikeja facility with JoyLong buses which is an eighteen seater bus and Ford Ranger which are pickups of 4×4 double cabin, 4×2 double cabin and 4×2 single cabin respectively. It was later moved to the ultra-modern main Plant located at the Group head office, Awoyaya, Lekki – Epe Expressway, Lagos in the year 2017; when they included Renault Duster 4×4, 4×2 SUV and also Renault Logan which is a saloon car. The production capacity of the main assembly plant stands at about 90 vehicles per day but the current production has painfully been reduced to about 10 vehicles per day which is due to so many factors like lack of conducive business environment,
lack of infrastructure, inconsistent policy support, low patronage of locally assembled vehicles in Nigeria amongst others. Staff strength for the Assembly plant is 86 (74 Nigerians and 12 expatriates). There are aftersales facilities for the brands in all the major cities of the country where original parts from partner OEMs are stocked.
At full capacity running, the assembly plant will be able to fill in the gap of imported used vehicles into the country and by extension influence the delivery of Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) in the automotive industry with other brands opening similar plants like we presently experience in South Africa with a better conducive business environment.
Taking into consideration the multiple expected implication of generating more employment and opportunities for Nigerians to own cheaper vehicles that are produced specifically for the terrain with the ready market advantage of over 200 million population.
