Grey imports hit jobs
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• The official UK Mitsubishi importer is cutting its workforce by 25%, blaming a glut of grey and parallel imports and slow sales in the commercial market. Mitsubishi Motors spokesman David Miles says that up to 8,000 unofficial imports have flooded the country in each of the past three years.
Although pickups represent a small and diminishing proportion of these imports, the company has been hit by the sale of parallel-import versions of its market-leading L200, and poor consumer confidence generally.
Miles says: "We're not alone in this, we're just one part of a whole industry that is being affected. The decision to make the cuts was to keep ourselves competitive and ahead of the game."
CM asked one unofficial L200 importer how many units it is selling. A spokesman replied: "A vehicle a day, normally, for the past couple of years."
This importer concentrates on 4x4 double cabs for the commercial market—its spokesman says the pickups all come with European specification and type approval.
Cross Country Motors, of Devizes, Wiltshire, also imports L200s and says it has sold 40 units over the past two years or so, equipped with European spec but needing Single Vehicle Approval.
Manager Jo Chandler says: We could sell them all day long to start with but that died off. We are out of stock now and we will not be getting any more in until the new model comes out in September."
Official sales of single and double-cab 4x4 versions totalled 2,112 for the whole of last year and up to May this year. Two-wheel-drive single cabs are less popular, with 53 registrations so far this year.
Some of the redundancies at Mitsubishi are enforced retirements but Miles says every worker is receiving financial packages "way above" the legal requirement.