Porsche plans to enter 15 new countries, mainly in Africa, by ’20

Porsche AG is looking to enter 15 new countries by the end of the decade, mainly in Africa, as part of its growth strategy.

“We’re covering new markets where we have not been in yet,” Bernhard Maier, Porsche’s global sales chief, said in Shanghai at the opening of its largest dealership in the world. “We’re aiming to go into an additional 15 countries by the end of the decade.” He said Porsche would look to north Africa, without specifying which markets.

Expanding into new countries would help Porsche reach its goal of selling more than 200,000 vehicles a year in 2015 or 2016. Porsche accounted for 1.29 billion euros ($1.75 billion) of parent Volkswagen AG’s first-half operating profit of 5.78 billion euros, making it the third-largest earnings contributor after Audi and the mass-market VW passenger-car brand.

The company is also looking for growth through new model lines, such as the Macan compact sport-utility vehicle, which would be used to “better exploit” all markets, Maier said. The Macan will be sold from next year.

Sales in China, already the Stuttgart, Germany-based company’s second-largest market after the U.S., will continue to expand as it almost doubles its dealership network to around 100 by 2016, from the current 57, Maier said.

China is Porsche’s top buyer of its Cayenne sport utility vehicle and Panamera sedan and the company wants to intensify its focus on sports-car sales, said Deesch Papke, Porsche’s China chief executive.

“What sits at the core is our 911,” he said. “We’re extremely successful and delighted that our customers have accepted Cayenne, Panamera, and our sports cars already, but we would like to institutionalize the sales of 911 stronger.”

Porsche deliveries in China rose 15 percent in the first nine months of the year. “In China, we see growth of 10 percent to 15 percent this year, and more in the direction of 15 percent,” Chief Financial Officer Lutz Meschke said in an interview on Oct. 8.

That will be slower than the 28 percent gain in sales last year, according to company figures.

Porsche’s profit growth is likely to resume in 2014 as the Macan and the 918 Spyder hybrid supercar join its product lineup, according to Meschke. (Bloomberg)