In a bid to strengthen its position in the fleet sector, Kia Motors has appointed Bob Austin as its new head of corporate sales and remarketing.

Austin joins Kia from Mazda Motors UK, where he worked as the national corporate sales manager. In this role, Austin raised Mazda’s fleet sales from almost 2,000 in 2002 to more than 18,000 units in 2005.

Kia is hoping that Austin can repeat this kind of success for its corporate sector.

“With the introduction of new products we hope to achieve sales of 30,000 fleet units by the close of 2010,” says Austin.

These new products will be part of one of the youngest portfolios in the UK and include the Cerato, Sorento and Magentis diesel. The C-segment Ce’ed, due for launch in November, will compete against the likes of the Ford Focus and VW Golf.

Austin will also work on the remarketing policy for ex-fleet Kias coming back onto the market. “We are in the process of launching a Kudos programme for this sector,” he says.

“This is a bespoke used car remarketing package. It will include merchandising access on the web, communication links to available stock and standard guarantees for cars supplied.”