PAN’s revival success
Two years ago Boyi was appointed PAN automobile Managing Director/CEO with a clear mandate to turn it around. He had his career largely in oil and gas industry starting from Total in 1985 and moving on to Oando where he rose through the ranks to become an Executive Director and also Managing Director of Gaslink […]
Two years ago Boyi was appointed PAN automobile Managing Director/CEO with a clear mandate to turn it around. He had his career largely in oil and gas industry starting from Total in 1985 and moving on to Oando where he rose through the ranks to become an Executive Director and also Managing Director of Gaslink Nigeria Limited, a pioneer gas distribution company and a subsidiary of Oando Plc.
Boyi has said “PAN was in a very challenging position when I got here. The partner, the Peugeot Auto Mobile of France, had pulled out and PAN lost the technical and training supports it used to get from them. The link for servicing support was also broken; so the customers of the company who were in dire need of its services were not getting them as they didn’t get the right types of spare parts for their vehicles; so the grey market simply took over.” And what is the situation today? The plant is back on stream producing vehicles. PAN has been assembling the new 301 and 508 cars since July last year and making progress with industrial activities into the CKD (completely knocked Down) stage.
Looking ahead at the PAN, Boyi has this to say: “We do a lot of market assessment because Peugeot products give us coverage of certain segments in the market. For instance, we don’t have a Pickup van, we don’t have big massive mass transit bus, and we may not have some low segment called V1. These are areas we are discussing with Peugeot in case they have any product to station in those segments. If not, we would be looking into the area of partnership.”
Boyi might not have sacked top management — AMCON the new shareholder of PAN has already done that for him, as well as assembled a formidable board of directors with whom he was able to achieve the turnaround we have seen so far. But he has renegotiated with Peugeot of France and won back its technical support and partnership. And he has his eyes fixed, like Marchionne, in other brands that, through market assessment, might be introduced to boost the market share of PAN in the industry.
With the largest assembling plant in West Africa under his control and a strategic partnership with second leading car brand in Europe, Peugeot of France, surely Boyi has all infrastructure and technical wherewithal to succeed. But the success of PAN Automobile will also depend on how well the Nigerian government implements the new automobile policy in the country, which works in favour of Nigerian manufacturers of automobile. Nigeria’s past succesfull attempts and good experience with assembly plants have not been sustained as the experiences of Brazil, Mexico and Iran, which are, today, proud automobile manufacturers giving their countries industrial edge over other nations they export to.
With the new administration at Aso Rock clearly determined to change the fortunes of Nigeria, this is the time to look at the automobile industry with the seriousness it deserves. It is potentially the shortest route to our industrialisation. With the regime’s desire to create jobs, surely a well oiled automobile industry will provide jobs through in services, spare-parts chains, and skilled labour. So what needs to be done for Nigeria’s industrialisation is simple: evolve and implement good industrial policies backed by assiduous institutional building.
It is said that a turnaround boss needs to have a clear action plan and goals, realistic timelines and the support of the company’s board and senior managers. Boyi has got all these. But it is also said that even the best strategy, however, needs to be accompanied by financial results, whether it’s greater market share, larger profits, a higher stock price, or preferably all three.
Bashir contributed this piece from Abuja