HIROSHIMA, Japan—Mazda Motor Corporation today held its annual ceremony marking the first product shipment of the year at the company’s cargo dock near its headquarters in Hiroshima. Approximately 500 people, including Hisakazu Imaki, Mazda’s representative director, president and CEO, together with other Mazda senior executive officers and employees, saw off the year’s first shipment of vehicles. The ceremony’s attendees viewed the 2008 RJC Car of the Year award-winning Mazda2 (known as the Mazda Demio in Japan), Mazda CX-7 and other models being loaded into car carrying vessels bound for destinations in Japan and overseas markets and heard commitments to further growth in 2008.

Mazda’s President and CEO, Hisakazu Imaki, said, “2008 will be the second year of our mid-term Mazda Advancement Plan, and it will be an extremely important year for us. The automotive industry’s operating environment is tougher than ever, but we will confidently go forward this year, taking steady steps in our operations toward achieving our goals.

“To do so, we will emphasize three major issues: improving brand value, strengthening our business efficiency, and improving quality throughout the Mazda Group. Notably, this year Mazda will launch a number of exhilarating products here in Japan and overseas, including the all-new Mazda6. Leveraging these exciting products to come, we want to see this year made outstanding by a dramatic improvement in Mazda’s brand value.”

In 2007, Mazda announced the Mazda Advancement mid-term plan (MAP), with reaching 1.6 million units of retail sales globally in fiscal year 2010 as one of its targets. In the first year of the plan, Mazda increased its production capacity in Japan, started operations at new manufacturing facilities in China and announced plans for a new passenger vehicle plant at its AutoAlliance Thailand (AAT) facility as it made solid progress toward achieving the goals laid out in the MAP.

Mazda is a global company supported by a following of admiring customers in more than 140 countries. Mazda’s international success is also founded on a global manufacturing network comprising two main domestic and 15 overseas production sites. With customer satisfaction as the first priority in everything it does, Mazda is committed to offering vehicles that “look inviting to drive, are fun to drive, and make you want to drive them again” while also balancing driving pleasure with eco-friendly and safety features.