Guenther Seemann

'You will have to forgive me as I have only been in this job for six weeks,' says quietly spoken Guenther Seemann from his eagle's eyrie of an office perched on the 18th floor of the Emirates Towers in Dubai.

However, while Mr. Seemann is new to his present job, he is not new to Dubai or BMW. He joined the premium German car group 19 years ago as a trainee, and spent four-and-a-half years in Dubai 10 years ago setting up BMW Group in the Middle East.

Now his objective is to become the No1 luxury car group in the Middle East, pitching into headlong competition with arch rival and market leader DaimlerChrysler.

'We are investing a total of $280 million in new showrooms and facilities,' he says. 'We opened a new showroom in Al Ain a few days ago, and will be opening new showrooms in Sharjah, Kuwait, Beirut, Damascus, Amman, Jeddah, Riyadh, Jubail, Mekkah and Muscat this year. In addition, Mini will have new showrooms in Sharjah, Kuwait, Beirut, Riyadh and Muscat.'

'Over the next four years we will be launching 20 new models. We are already number one is some part of the premium segment of the market. And our objective is to be in the overall No 1 position.'

But the past year was not so good for BMW in the Middle East. Sales grew by just 50 vehicles to 10,251 in 2003, admittedly a new record for the group.

'Buyers hate uncertainty and many postponed their buying decisions,' says Mr. Seemann who returns to Dubai from launching BMW in China.

'We also saw the impact of the high euro. This is a fact of life that we have to accept. But the retail price in the market is very important and we will not allow it to move by 20% with the exchange rate.

'We will work to ensure a stable retail price by sharing the additional burden with the distributor as well as the customer. Last year prices went up by 8%.'

BMW Group has also added the Rolls Royce over the past 15 months, the premium brand of premium brands. And six weeks ago the new Rolls Royce Phantom limousine was launched in Dubai.

'Unfortunately we have already sold out of this year's product,' says Mr. Seemann. This is a common situation, and he admits it is frustrating to him and customers who often have to wait one to three months for their new BMW.

'We hope people appreciate that owning a BMW is not just about driving from A to B, it is about showing that you are successful, a status symbol if you like. But we do always try to do our best to keep our customers happy'.