Daewoo Truck Ireland is very pleased with this result in this highly competitive sector with its Avia 7.5/9.0 tonne truck range outperforming Mercedes, MAN, Isuzu and Renault.

"Yes, we are very happy with our sales figures for 2004," stated David Mullen, Managing Director, Daewoo Truck Ireland. "Substantial progress has been made with the brand since we began trade in October 2003, having taken over the franchise from the original importer Sheridan Daewoo in 2000. Our figures for last year were also boosted by vehicles supplied through our Northern Ireland dealer network which would not have been included in the Irish registration statistics.

In addition, we have been supplying significant quantities of new Daewo Avia's to dealers in the UK from October 2004 to date at the request of the manufacturer headquartered in the Czech Republic." He added. "This was as a result of financial difficulties with the UK distributor, who eventually went into voluntary liquidation about two months ago.

Daewoo Avia - Prague, have set up a subsidiary company, Avia Trucks UK Ltd to distribute their vehicles in mainland UK and are based in the Manchester area."

In relation to Daewoo Avia in Prague, additional capital has been injected into the company recently by US investors, to speed up production and handle the increasing orders. This should bring production lead times from eight weeks back to six weeks.

According to Mr. Sang Hun Park, Export Director, Daewoo Avia, "The factory is working hard on a number of marketing and sales initiatives, including marketing promotions, product upgrades and new products and look forward to introducing these in the near future."

Daewoo Ireland