Roslan (left) leading the visit to the new parts centre, accompanied by Proton vice president of sales & after sales Edmund Lim.
SUBANG JAYA: Proton has opened a regional parts centre in Kuching to better serve both Sarawak and Sabah.
The newly completed facility will reduce the lead time for parts delivery by at least 30%, said Proton.
Located at the Bintawa Industrial area, the centre occupies 28,000 sq ft of floor space. It can receive up to six containers of parts on site simultaneously and is currently processing an average of 17 containers per month, fully using its capability to store up to three months of stock.
It also caters to direct shipments from overseas.
“With increasing customer demand over the last four years, Proton’s previous warehouse facilities in East Malaysia were overflowing with parts and running inefficiently due to space limitations," said Proton deputy chief executive officer Roslan Abdullah.
He was also in Kuching to host a visit to the parts centre by Sarawak Proton dealers.
The new parts centre is three times larger than its predecessor and will function as a parts distribution centre for aftersales parts for Sarawak and Sabah.
The added space also allows Proton to increase delivery by 50% from 3,000 orders per month to 4,500 orders per month with a maximum capacity of 6,000 orders per month should the need arise.
"This allows us to achieve more parts throughput and as of today we are quickly clearing backlogged orders from our dealers and customers,” said Roslan.
In 2022, sales of Proton vehicles in both Borneo states accounted for 15% to the company’s total sales volume while market share had grown from 10% in 2018 to 20% in 2022, climbing steadily since 2019 after the introduction of the X70.
The Saga remained the most popular model. Last year, the top three Proton models sold in both states were the Saga with 10,242 units followed by the X50 with 4,181 and the Persona with 2,605 units respectively.
“Customer satisfaction remains our goal, and we know Proton still needs to strive to improve our level of after sales service," said Roslan.
"Each positive step we take brings us closer to our target, and we remain committed to provide high quality products to go along with a similarly high level of after sales support.”
