KARACHI (January 31, 2009) - Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. (Nissan) today announced that Ghandhara Nissan Limited (GNL) restarted production of the SUNNY compact sedan at their plant in Karachi. Production of SUNNY ceased?in 2002 and Ghandhara Nissan Limited (GNL) has been selling vehicles imported from Japan.
"We are very pleased to restart the production in Pakistan" said Shinya Hannya, Nissan's corporate vice president for overseas markets. "Building locally is confirmation of Nissan's commitment to the Pakistani market."
"Manufacturing locally means Nissan can respond to our customers' needs faster and more efficiently," said Ahmad Kuli Khan Khattak, chief executive officer of GNL, speaking at the celebration event that marked the start of production. "Thanks to the dedication of our plant workforce, we are meeting Nissan's global production standards to deliver high quality and reliable vehicles to our customers."
The new production line has adopted the Nissan Production Way (NPW), Nissan's world-class global manufacturing system which utilizes the best processes and procedures to ensure manufacturing is in sync with customer needs. In order to start production of Nissan models at the GNL plant, Nissan dispatched engineers and technicians from Japan for 10 months to share the techniques and tools to reach global production quality standards.
In 2008, Nissan sold 430 vehicles in CBU condition through GNL dealerships. GNL currently has six sales outlets nationwide, with plans to double the number in the next two years to meet market needs.
The locally produced SUNNY will be available for sale beginning February 1 through the GNL dealership network.
About Ghandhara Nissan Limited (GNL)
GNL is a group company of Bibojee Services (Pvt.) Limited. It was incorporated in 1981 as a private limited company and was licensed to distribute Nissan's completely built-up (CBU) vehicles in Pakistan. In 1992 it was converted to a public company listed on the Karachi Stock Exchange. Through a technical assistance agreement with Nissan, GNL is committed to producing high-quality products, delivering customer satisfaction, achieving market leadership and contributing to the economic growth of Pakistan