SAY KWEE NENG is looking stressed. The managing director of Regent Motors, the local agent for Ford, Peugeot and Land Rover, is in the middle of moving office to Regent’s spanking new showroom complex on Alexandra Road.

A stack of packed boxes totters beside his desk and there are countless niggling matters to attend to. Thursday saw the unveiling of the new Land Rover Discovery 3 and Range Rover Sport, but to Regent Motors, the launch of those cars marked something bigger: a major repositioning of the Land Rover brand, in an attempt to give it a fresh start here. A revival is badly needed, too. From a peak of 67 cars in1999, Land Rover sales sank to just 24 units last year. To get buyers interested again, Land Rover is churning out new models. Which leaves Regent Motors with the task of selling them. Days before the big relaunch, CarBuyer sat down with Mr Say to sniff out his strategy for the brand.

CarBuyer: Why is there a need to relaunch the Land Rover brand?
Say Kwee Neng: If you look at the history of Land Rover, certainly in Singapore, we’ve not had an opportunity like this with three relatively new models in such a short span of time. It’s not by accident that these new models – the new Discovery and the Range Rover Sport and the facelifted Range Rover – are presented to us. Under the ownership of Ford they now have the resources to be what they’ve always wanted to be: the best manufacturers of luxury all-terrain vehicles in the automotive world today.

CB: What does doing a relaunch entail?
SKN: Obviously the first thing is getting the new facility up and running. Land Rover today is positioning itself as a maker of premiere luxury vehicles that also happen to be 4×4 all-terrain vehicles, and it needs the facilities to bring that across.

The other element is building a new team to take the business to a new level. We’ve hired a new sales and marketing manager, we are getting a brand manager to help develop the brand, and younger salespeople to look after high net-worth customers.

CB: What’s the current perception of Land Rover in Singapore?
SKN: I think, to be honest, Land Rover has had a pretty bad run in the past because the products weren’t perceived to be luxurious or reliable. I’m glad to say that this new generation will completely change that perception because there is absolutely no trace of Land Rovers of old with these new products. They’re better-engineered, and the luxury and quality that you’ll see in these vehicles is better than anything that they’ve ever produced. It’s night and day.

CB: Last year you did about two cars a month on average, and the year before that about three. Is that acceptable?
SKN: Personally, no. Quite frankly, I think not having the right products and the right engine specifications has clearly hurt the volume. But we recognise that most of the engine range will be large capacity, and in our market that limits us to probably the top one percent of the market in terms of income levels and affordability and such. So we recognise that it’s never going to be a volume game for us.

What’s more important is that we take what’s given to us to create a very strong and passionate, cult following in Singapore.

CB: You’re obviously putting a lot into this. What do you expect to get out of it?
SKN: When you talk about two to three cars per month, you’re talking about Freelanders and Defenders, which are not exactly high premium products. I would be very comfortable selling four to five Discoveries, Range Rover Sports or even Range Rovers (a month).But I think a more accurate gauge of success for us would be whether we are able to carry the brand successfully to our target audience, and whether we are able to convince them that there is something to be had from Land Rover.

CB: It’s not possible to reposition a brand overnight, so how long do you give yourselves?
SKN: It took us almost five years to establish the Peugeot brand and bring it to where it is today, and I’m not even saying that it’s where it should be. A timeframe of three to five years of hard work, uncompromising focus on brand values and executing these properly in terms of PR, advertising and marketing events, would let us establish the base that we want to.

CB: Where do you expect all the sales to come from?
SKN: High-net worth individuals who we know are passionate about the vehicles that they run. They’re passionate about buying the best things in life. So we want to talk to these customers on a one-to-one basis, to convince them that the product deserves their attention.

CB: What cars do you intend to tempt them away from?
SKN: Honestly, we don’t want to tempt them away from anything. We just want to present Land Rover for all its worth. I believe if we do an honest job about it, they will understand that this is the only authentic 4×4 brand in the auto world and it has such an impressive lineage that driving anything less would show to your contemporaries that you don’t actually know a lot about your vehicle.