LONDON: The Port of Grimsby River Terminal, which opened in 2013, will receive around 37,000 new Suzuki cars by the end of this year. This figure will again mark the very high volume of new cars processed by Suzuki at the £26 million facility following a record sales year in 2014. This is thanks to record demand from customers in the UK for the brand’s growing range of affordable, stylish and high specification models. Suzuki GB PLC also has the second biggest volume of imports passing through the Lincolnshire docks out of the five manufacturers who use the logistics hub.
The port on the Humber has today become the country’s leading point of entry for the automotive sector, and a major employer for the local economy. Around 250 shipping and terminal personnel are based at the facility which counts a team of Suzuki specialists who are responsible for handling the arrival of models from the automaker’s plants across the globe. These include the award-winning Swift supermini which is produced in Hungary and the Celerio City car which is built at the manufacturer’s Rayong plant in Thailand. All vehicles received at the port are assessed and prepared according to stringent quality standards before their distribution to its nationwide network of 152 dealers.
The town of Grimsby is equally a key retail centre for the region’s drivers. Read Suzuki on Railway Street offers motorists a newly-refurbished state-of-the-art five-car showroom housing highly-knowledgeable staff and the entire product range, including the recently launched all-new Vitara compact SUV.
Michael Read, Dealer Principal at Read Suzuki, said: “Grimsby represents an important strategic intersection in the UK for Suzuki in terms of sales and transportation. The brand’s presence at both sites has had a very positive impact, bringing significant job creation and investment to the town and the wider region. As further models and variants are introduced going forward, the benefits that Suzuki brings to the area will only be amplified.”
