(Shanghai.) A new BMW Regional Distribution Center (RDC) opened today in Shanghai for official operation. As the second distribution centre in Mainland China, it will facilitate the expansion of BMW sales and service network in the Chinese market and rapid response to the dealers and customers' parts ordering in the Central China region.
The RDC is located in Minhang District in Shanghai, and covers an area of 9,000 m2 with options to expand to up to 15,000 m2 in the future. With the advanced leading-edge warehouse management system which extends the interactions with the BMW Central Distribution Centers in Germany and Malaysia, the centre is able to plan and operate efficiently sophisticated logtistics processes from parts ordering, importation, warehousing and distribution. Therefore the delivery of spare parts into the Chinese mainland and the supply of the dealer organization is further improved. There will about 15,000 part numbers on stock, and an estimated number of 290,000 outbound lines per year. Currently, 25 dealers are directly linked to the Shanghai RDC.
The RDC significantly improve the lead-times of deliveries to dealers in Central China. For example, the average lead-time for rush orders to Shanghai dealers has been reduced from 120 hours to 20 hours. Because of the strong linkage within the BMW parts distribution network, the Shanghai RDC will also contribute positively to the whole dealer network in China: in case of a non-avaliability in one warehouse, the demand will be forwarded to the distribution center which is able to fulfill the order.
"BMW Group achieved strong growth in retail sales again in the third quarter of 2007 in China. It can be attributed largely to the continous expansion of our sales and service network as well as our new initiatives in service enhancement." said Dr. Christoph Stark, President & CEO, BMW Group Region China."We will continue to expand the network in the future and enhance service quality and customer satisfaction. The establishment of BMW Regional Distribution Center Shanghai marks another milestone of BMW Group's commitment to the customers in China."
BMW Group has achieved continous growth in China over the last decade. Sales of BMW and MINI reached a record 36,300 vehicles in the third quarter of this year, with a growth rate of 37% over the same period of last year. With the parts warehouse in Hong Kong, the Parts Distribution Center in Beijing (which opened in December last year) and the start of operation of the RDC Shanghai, BMW China now provides spare parts logistics facilities in the Southern, Central and Northern Region of Mainland China. This highly flexible logistics network enables a delivery to all dealers from all of these warehouses.
