KYIV. Jan 12 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Bosch (Stuttgart, Germany), one of the leading auto parts producers in the world, opened 41 Bosch Auto Service stations in Ukraine in 2015, and the number of stations in the country reached 218 (taking into account Bosch Diesel Service stations), Director General of Robert Bosch Ltd. (Kyiv) and Vice President of Bosсh Termottechnik GmbH in Baltic and CIS countries (apart from Russia) Vitaliy Bulda has said.
“In 2014, we had 219 stations, including 42 stations on the occupied territory of Ukraine. In 2014 we lost 42 stations in Crimea and in eastern Ukraine. They were closed, as we do not supply auto parts to the occupied territory. In 2015, we opened 41 stations in other regions,” he said at a briefing on Monday.
He said that new stations were opened in Ivano-Frankivsk, Kharkiv, Mariupol.
“Financial flows after the occupation of territories of Ukraine were redistributed: if earlier Zakarpattia region was not popular, today with the development of tourism and infrastructure it has become a promising region. I cannot say that there are failure regions – business is moving, and Bosch Services closed in Luhansk and Simferopol moved to other regions. In addition, the development of roads in the country, even careful, also promotes the appearance of servicing stations on them,” Bulda said.
He did not disclose the number of stations that will be opened this year, although he said that in 2019 it is planned to bring their number to 332.
Bulda said that in 2015, a trend of opening Bosch Auto Services by companies that earlier worked with one group of cars, for example, VW, was first recorded in 2015. Bosсh allows servicing a wide range of cars and supplies equipment.
“We supply auto parts, provide technical documents, train and supply equipment. I think that it is hard to resist to this combination,” he said.
Bulda said that the auto part market reacts to the situation on the Ukrainian automobile market that more than halved last year.
“We here see the trend that shows that clients prefer reliable companies that exited on the market yesterday, they exist today and will exist tomorrow – Bosch is this company,” Bulda said.
Bosch began developing the project Bosch Service in Ukraine in January 2002, in late 2001 it signed an agreement with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) on the issue of $12.35 million for lending participants of the created franchise network of service stations.
In summer 2007, the EBRD decided to provide Bosch Ukraine with another loan of EUR 6 million.
Bulda said that at present the company does not attract funds from the EBRD to open new stations.
Bosch Auto Service provides maintenance, diagnostics and repair of cars and minibuses, Bosch Diesel Service specializes in maintenance and repair of all traditional components of diesel injection systems.
