Things are happening in the Balkans: the vehicle market is growing. This development has prompted TÜV NORD Mobilität to open a new office in Bulgaria; the first vehicle valuations are underway in Croatia, and TÜV NORD Mobilität has taken advantage of an event to plant its flag in Macedonia. "An interesting market is currently evolving for us in the Balkans, and we want to use our expertise to help shape its future development,” says Ingo Albes, Regional Coordinator for Europe at TÜV NORD Mobilität. “In some areas our early entry into the market has already paid off; in others we want to use the existing momentum to get the TÜV NORD brand into play.”
“Bulgaria offers us a lot of opportunities,” said Rainer Hagemann from TÜV NORD Mobilität during the opening ceremony for the new office in Sofia. There is demand in the market in particular for individual approvals and damage appraisals and valuations. Penka Gospodinova and Alexander Spassow are the brains behind the current development of the business. Mr Hagemann: “All new members of staff are being trained in line with the German guidelines and specifications.” Bulgaria currently occupies 54th place (out of 140 states) in the Global Competitiveness Ranking of the World Economic Forum (WEF). In a regional comparison of business areas that depend on exports, including the auto industry, the company in Germany responsible for foreign trade and location marketing (Germany Trade & Invest, GTAI) has a favourable view of Bulgaria.
In Croatia, Vedran Rajkovic is all set to start preparations to enter the market for vehicle valuations, a major focus in the large car rental market. This country on the Adriatic Sea attracts more than 14 million tourists a year, and the numbers are climbing. After every season, the car rental companies sell large numbers of cars. When used as a sales argument, independent car valuations can be an important source of sales revenue for TÜV Croatia. Of this Dr Duro Tunjic, Managing Director of TÜV Croatia, and Ingo Albes have absolutely no doubt.
In the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, TÜV NORD Mobilität presented its services to an audience consisting of representatives of a number of ministries and car dealerships. The invitation to do so came from cooperation partner AM CERT. Of particular interest to the audience was the testing of electronic components using the adapter for the Periodic Technical Inspection that was introduced in Germany one year ago. Also on the agenda were services for car dealerships and workshops. These issues were also of interest to regional TV channels and one radio station.