By Samuel Ee

[SINGAPORE] The international arena is becoming more important for Citroen as European markets mature, and one area that the French carmaker is planning to push further into is the Asean region.

"Asean is a major market and there is no doubt it will keep growing, and Singapore is an important place to be in Asean because it is the window to Asean," said Loic De La Roche, director of Citroen's international division, which includes the Asia-Pacific ex-China, Africa and the Middle-East.

Singapore's importance is also reflected in the fact that Citroen Pod, the striking showroom of authorised distributor Cycle & Carriage France, is the first in Asia to reflect Citroen's new brand identity and direction Citroen is part of the PSA Peugeot Citroen group, which last year had a global market share of 5 per cent.

Peugeot is the bigger of the two auto manufacturers, selling 1.9 million vehicles worldwide in 2008, while Citroen sold 1.36 million.

Of this number of passenger and commercial vehicles sold by Citroen, only 30,000 - or 2.2 per cent - were sold by Citroen's international division.

Mr De La Roche said that this is a small number but there is big potential, especially in China, Singapore, South Africa and South America.

"We want to chase these important markets for future development," he explained.

"We want to be visible wherever we are and we want to express our brand potential not just by selling cars but by adding value."

The aim is to put the Citroen brand on the customer's shopping list, and not just a specific model like the new C3 hatchback or Picasso MPV. Too often, consumers think about the particular model because of the success it has had but not the make itself.

"The brand must place added value to the product," said Mr De La Roche, who revealed that while Citroen is "very confident and proud of the product", it wants to get the product and image more in line with each other.

A new logo and new models should help to achieve this goal. Citroen's famed chevron badge was updated as part of the carmaker's 90th anniversary celebrations this year, as a slew of new models enter the market.

One example is the new C3. The latest version of this best-selling supermini is bigger and more stylish, with a panoramic front windscreen that extends all the way to above the front occupants' heads.

"2009 is a very, very difficult year for us because of the economic crisis, but we are trying to recover in the second half," said Mr De La Roche, adding that Citroen hopes to end the year with sales of just 24,000 fewer units, thanks to government incentives and the economic turnaround.

On the other hand, "2010 is a very important year for Citroen because the market will get better".

"We will relaunch with a new corporate identity and product plan," said Mr De La Roche, adding that the model offensive would continue into 2011 and 2012.

This article was first published in The Business Times.