HIROSHIMA, Japan—Mazda Motor Corporation today announced that it will establish a new national sales company (NSC) for distribution of its products in The Netherlands, scheduled to commence operations on October 1, 2008. Distribution activities will be transferred from Auto Palace - de Binckhorst B.V., an independent distributor, to the new NSC, which will be officially called Mazda Motor Nederland. The new NSC will be headquartered in Waddinxveen, in the western part of The Netherlands. Martijn ten Brink was appointed managing director of the new operation.

This change to a Mazda-owned distribution network is another step in the mid-term Mazda Advancement Plan’s initiatives to strengthen the company’s brand image and develop its sales network in Europe, and to further reinforce its successful sales momentum in the region. The new NSC’s model lineup will include the 2008 World Car of the Year winner all-new Mazda2, Mazda5 and the all-new Mazda6, among other exciting Zoom-Zoom products.

“Over the last eight years, Mazda in Europe has progressively acquired control over distribution to the extent that about ninety percent of our annual sales volume is now made by wholly-owned subsidiaries,” said James Muir, president and CEO of Mazda Motor Europe. “We intend to selectively increase this proportion of our volume in markets where it is logical and appropriate, and this move into the Netherlands is a consequence of that strategy.”

Mazda has been progressively taking control of its distribution operations in European markets to build brand awareness and develop its sales and service networks. In line with this, since 2007, Mazda has established NSCs in Belgium/Luxembourg, Poland and Turkey. The drive to continue the expansion of NSCs is one element which helped Mazda Motor Europe achieve record sales of nearly 327,000 vehicles in fiscal year 2007, its best result in the 17 years since 1990.