Amidst tariffs and other economic uncertainties, Vice President of Infiniti Americas Tiago Castro says he’s aiming for consistent, sustained growth for the brand.
To do so, it’s been imperative that he and the leadership team streamline dealership feedback lines, while also delivering on scaled growth for individual models, and preparing to launch new ones.
Driving the news: Since stepping into the role in April, Castro has been hyper-focused on a major simplification of processes, routine feedback opportunities between leadership and the retail network, and executing on future plans for an expanded product lineup.
“Our number one priority, I would say, is to simplify our way of doing business with others,” Castro told Daily Dealer Live hosts Sam D’Arc and Uli De’Martino this week. “How can we be a partner that everybody wants to work with?”
“And what I say by that is to reduce our interference, or our requests for dealers to follow our processes, procedures, and programs,” he explained.
Zooming in: Castro says that, in his first in-person meeting with the dealer advisory board, the team went over 80 different programs, activities, or processes available to dealers, with the aim of removing anything unnecessary.
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Bottom Line: The top feedback from dealerships has been about when new products would arrive, according to the executive.
To accommodate this, Castro Infiniti is currently aiming to launch one new product each year, while scaling back to a vehicle delivery guidance of 50,000 units this year.
In that, he says, the brand plans to scale volume back up “every day, every month, and every year,” with a target of reaching the 100,000-unit figure by 2029.
Leadership has also taken action on dealer feedback about regionalizing incentive, marketing, and advertising opportunities.
“I don’t want to tell you we’re going to launch 50 products and try to combine all the small changes to one product per year,” Castro explains.
“We’re going to do less, but we’re going to do it very well,” he adds. “And I think that’s one of the themes that I heard a lot from our dealers: ‘Do less, but do it well.’”
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