The Singapore car market is one of the most expensive in the world, and riddled with government regulation, but Nicholas Wong has been up to the challenge. Taking on the role of general manager for Kah Motor — a licensed distributor for Honda in Singapore — Nicholas has managed to drive substantial year-on-year progress despite ongoing market challenges and economic roadblocks by recognising the value of good people and good service.
With a degree in finance and economics and experience working across sales and marketing, automotive distribution is where he found his calling. “I got myself into the most difficult retailing industry in Singapore,” he says. “Throughout my career, I’ve worked with another car distributor, a family business, and a multinational corporation, but most of my time has been with Kah Motor. I’ve been here 20 years now, and this is where I’ve achieved the most.” Kah Motor, too, has certainly come a long way since its early roots in the region.
A highly regulated industry
Wind back the clock to 1957, when motoring enthusiast Tan Sri Loh Boon Siew formed Boon Siew Sdn Bhd. The next year, Tan Sri Loh would meet and partner with Honda Motor Company founder, Soichiro Honda, and subsequently also set up the Kah Motor Company in 1969 to further the Honda automobile business in Malaysia and Singapore.
As traffic congestion across Singapore grew to debilitating levels, threatening the health and sustainability of the city–state, the following 20 years would see the government implement a variety of measures intended to curb private vehicle ownership.
This push would eventually result in the introduction of the Certificate of Entitlement (COE) system in 1990, an annual car quota program under which Singapore motorists must bid for a COE to register, own and use a vehicle in Singapore for a period of 10 years. As COE is an added cost to the overall price of a motor vehicle, distributors like Kah Motor can also bid for some varieties of COE and then offer packaged deals for customers at a fixed price inclusive of the COE premium and other services such as insurance. “Our industry is highly regulated, and we are greatly affected whenever there are any policy changes by the government,” says Nicholas. “Even if you’re running a very aggressive campaign, if you want to gain market share over your competitors there’s nowhere else to go but to acquire COE.”
When first appointed general manager in 2012, Nicholas says the industry had been facing a substantial increase in COE prices following ongoing falls in the number of certificates made available since 2007. “The market was experiencing a tremendous challenge around COE in 2012,” he says. “The number of COE available reduced tremendously, and in 2013 it was the worst year: the market shrank to 22,472 units.” Despite this, strategic initiatives implemented by Nicholas saw Kah Motor triple its sales consecutively in 2013, 2014 and 2015, and 2016 has seen slightly slowed growth but continued strong performance, with sales doubling since the previous year.
The ‘holy trinity’ for success
“We’ve been growing like crazy,” says Nicholas. “Of course, the market expanded as well, but we identified a lot of opportunities to attract and retain more customers through people- and service-led initiatives.” Nicholas also credits Kah’s ongoing relationship with Honda for its success, which he says has provided a considerable value-add for customers who might otherwise be attracted to the cheaper offerings of parallel importers (PIs) — resellers of key motoring brands that are not officially appointed by the manufacturer. With lower price tags, PIs represent some of Kah’s greatest competitors in Honda sales; however, without an official partnership with a manufacturer, they present a higher risk of issues around warranties, replacement parts and overall service quality.
Working in tandem with Honda Motor Japan, Kah can provide more extensive development, service and spare parts from Honda’s network, with sales and service facilities attached to all Kah Motor centres, each containing a range of genuine Honda parts, lubricants, accessories and car-care products, and which cater to the maintenance and repair needs of Kah Motor customers. “We have all the technical advances and capabilities in-house, so that if a customer has an issue or is in an accident, our people are very technically competent and can explain to the customer exactly what happened to the car and also fix it,” says Nicholas. “We take care of the customer after the sale is done. We’re not a fly-by-night trader who sells the car, pockets the profits, and then has no more contact throughout the life cycle of the vehicle. We provide peace of mind.”
Another component to Nicholas’s ‘holy trinity’ for success includes having the best infrastructure in-house to handle the volume of sales and customer assistance that buyers require.
“I have to ensure that every step of the way there are no objections from customers. Once you can make customers very comfortable, they’ll say good things about you,” says Nicholas. Third, Nicholas says having the right internal staff and management has played the largest role in Kah Motor’s success these past 5 years. “Everything begins with the staff working at Kah Motor; to me our staff are just as important as the customer,” he says. “I really value human capital, and I have crafted a great team of talented, like-minded people. I owe the success of the business not to myself but to the team that I put together. If the business was left in their hands, the company would certainly continue to grow.”
New technologies on the horizon
Looking ahead, Kah Motor will be keeping an eye on the horizon with regard to new technological developments, as government and industry continue collaborating on producing fully electric cars and safe, driverless vehicles, among others.
“I owe the success of the business not to myself but to the team that I put together. If the business was left in their hands, the company would certainly continue to grow.” – Nicholas Wong
“We’ll be looking at what kinds of skills and partnerships we can grow to take full advantage of these trends,” says Nicholas. While electric cars are still too expensive to produce, Honda has been offering hybrid vehicles for almost 15 years.
“Honda has always forged ahead in areas where the market is not ready. I enjoy my work very much because I’m constantly exposed to technological advances. It’s a very exciting place to be,” concludes Nicholas.