Published: 08 March 2018

Quest Motors singing the bluesMUTARE-BASED motor vehicles assembler, Quest Motors is still in the woods despite the dawn of a new era in the southern African country.

The Eastern News can report that the company risks going under unless there is meaningful uptake of its products, especially from the domestic market.

What is not helping matters is that government, which is the biggest buyer of vehicles on the local market, still prefers imports instead of buying from local assembly plants.

Quest's operations manager, Carl Fernandez, told the Eastern News that they were still to receive orders from the new administration, which has clocked 100 days in office.

Major government institutions such as ministries, the police, army and a string of State-owned enterprises, can easily turn around the situation if they buy their vehicles locally.

Because Quest is unable to launch itself in the southern region because it lacks the competitive edge to do so, the company is really in trouble.

Fernandez said Quest was also concerned that it has not been able to recruit younger employees to succeed those who are ageing due to depressed demand.

As a result, it has been holding on to key staff who are past their retirement age in a desperate effort to prevent losing its 55-year human capital investment.

"This is a huge concern. We are trying to hold on but no one lasts forever," Fernandez said.

The Mutare manufacturing plant has been running since 1960 as Australian Motor Corporation.

It has to date assembled over 100 000 vehicles of 170 different models, including passenger vehicles, trucks and tractors.

The plant can build 10 different models per day, while it can produce 35 vehicles at full capacity with a full staff complement of 4 500.

It currently employs 200 workers.

Quest currently holds the franchise for Japanese manufacturers Mitsubishi, Toyota, Suzuki, Chinese makes such as Foton, JMC and Chery as well as for German car maker, BMW.

Critics have often said Quest can easily ride out of the storm if it makes its vehicles affordable.

But Quest director, Talik Adam, said this week increased production figures would lower the unit production cost, adding they are "trying to get as much through the factory as possible so that the unit production cost can go down".

Minister of State for Manicaland Monica Mutsvangwa admitted recently that the vehicle manufacturer was in troubled waters and needed the country's economy to be fixed to prevent it from going under.

"I had an opportunity to tour two companies, including Quest Motors. I'm telling you, they are operating at two percent and yet when you look around, our children are out of school and there is so much unemployment all over… What can we do? The answers are with you and not with leadership," Mutsvangwa moaned.
- dailynews

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