Kia customers from o`seas tour carmaker`s plants, affiliates

“This is also an affiliate of Hyundai Motor Group.”

When a staff member of Kia Motors said this Wednesday at Hyundai Steel’s plant in Dangjin, South Chungcheong Province, 64 foreign visitors looked surprised and seemed initially puzzled to hear that a steel factory was an affiliate of the automaker. After viewing Hyundai Steel’s 10-minute introductory video, however, the visitors nodded at last.

Hailing from 15 countries, the visitors were on an “Invitational Tour of Korea for Loyal Customers of Kia Motors” offered by Kia. Previously, foreign customers from Kia’s respective overseas headquarters visited the company’s domestic plants, but this was the first time for customers from a number of countries to get together.

A Kia source said, “The event has been organized to express our gratitude to foreign customers and instill them with the image of Kia Motors as global enterprise.” A combined 288 customers from 40 countries will participate in the program this month.

Kia included in the program’s itinerary a tour of the steel plant to show the visitors the parent group’s vertical integration of businesses. By giving them an opportunity to witness the entire production process of steel products ranging from the manufacturing of automotive platforms and skeletons to the assembly of cars, Kia seeks to demonstrate its confidence in quality to customers.

At the Kia plant in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, the visiting foreign customers examined the assembly process of the mid-size sedans K5 (called the Optima in the U.S.) and K7 (Cadenza). Pausing at the welding production line, where robots were welding platforms and doors automatically, one visitor said, “The images of the robots of instantly holding up and welding chassis looked like a scene from a sci-fi movie describing the future.”

Pointing at a K5 vehicle powered by liquefied petroleum gas, or LPG, a Colombian customer said, “What is the purpose of this car?,” to Kia answered, “Taxi cabs in Korea mostly use LPG, which is cheaper and eco-friendly. So a different engine is installed in the car.”

At the Hyundai Steel plant, visitors from Western countries took a tour of the rolling process, in which red-hot steel sheets get shaped while being rolled along rails. Tour guides fluent in English, Russian, Spanish and Chinese followed the visitors while wearing safety helmets, calling it the starting phase of Kia cars.

The tour has been organized under Kia’s three-year marketing plan. Under its service slogan “Family-like care,” the automaker offered training programs to operators from foreign businesses and dealers in 2010 and to overseas technical staff in 2011. The company is targeting foreign customers in the final phase of the plan this year.

Hwang Dong-hwan, an assistant general manager of Kia’s overseas service team, said, “We expect these people to help elevate the image of Kia Motors overseas.”

Trevor Smith, a 68-year-old Canadian who has bought the Kia Carens MPV and the mini-car Ray since 2008, said, “Kia seems to be still in a growth pace compared to other large automakers in North America,” adding, “I was deeply impressed with the management philosophy of Kia, which pursues perfect quality from parts to assembly.”

windup@donga.com