A DAY after announcing that it will close its Yamaha motorcycle production and assembly plant under Norkis Trading Co. (NTC), the Norkis Group of Companies (NGC) disclosed that it will open new retail financing outlets.
Director Asteria Caberte of the Department of Trade and Industry 7 said the move can help small-and-medium entrepreneurs, especially those who are not bank-ready.
NGC media consultant Willie E. Capulong said that this will serve the growing demand of its customers in the land transport sector.
He said NGC’s other companies might absorb the 364 executives and rank-and-file employees who will be affected by the plant closure on July 15 if they don’t accept the early retirement package NTC is offering.
Acting Mandaue City Mayor Amadeo Seno Jr. described as “unfortunate” the closure of NTC’s Yamaha motorcycle production and assembly plant.
Seno said he hopes that the Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) will find a way so that the affected employees will not be displaced.
He added in an interview last Friday that 364 is still a significant figure.
Coordination
He said he can’t blame the company for its decision, though, since its agreement with the Yamaha Motors Co. Ltd. of Japan for the production of motorcycles will expire next month.
In a separate interview, Mayor-elect Jonas Cortes said he would coordinate with the Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry on the matter of the displaced employees.
He said that the city would feel the impact of plant’s closure not only because of the possible displacement of 364 employees, many of whom are residents in Mandaue, but also because the City Government will lose a major taxpayer.
Despite the closure of the plant, Norkis’ Capulong said the company’s retail financing business is considered the country’s leading installment group in the land transportation sector, with investment portfolio amounting to almost P7 billion and servicing over 150,000 accounts nationwide.
Capulong said an additional 25 new retail financing units will be established in the next two years, 15 in Luzon and another 10 in the Visayas and Mindanao areas. The expansion program was set by the recent two-day business-planning workshop held by various retail financing units in Cebu last week.
Outlets
In Luzon, Capulong said Norkis companies such as Eagle North, Eagle Central, Alfa Financing Services Group Inc., Magna Financing Services Group Inc., Porta Coeli Finance Corp., Norkis Automotive Resources Corp. (NARC) and Auto Solutions Inc (ASI) are managing the retail financing and product marketing.
In the Visayas and Mindanao, this is handled by Norkis Distributor Inc., Cebu Filipino Marketing Resources Corp., Northern Mindanao Finance Services Group Inc., Southern Mindanao Finance Services Group Inc., NARC and ASI.
Aside from the motorcycle financing business, Capulong said these firms also provide installment financing to buyers of Norkis four-wheel products, such as Multicabs, Legacy First, Maverick, Top Gun and the newly introduced Norkis Spider, a multi-purpose utility vehicle.
To achieve easy access and efficient management and monitoring of its financing network, Capulong said NGC early this year implemented it’s P200 million IT (information technology) project.
Capulong said that at present, NGC has a network of 29 companies that include Norkis Trading Company Inc., Porta Coeli Industrial Company Inc., Eagle Finance Services Group, Age of Travel, Golden Sunshine Ranch Inc. and Evergreen Community Services Inc.
NTC accounts for 10 percent of the entire assets of the NGC and has been the flagship company of industrialist Norberto Quisumbing Jr. for 45 years already. The company occupies a large piece of property on A.S. Fortuna St., a prime area near M.C. Briones Highway.
Quisumbing is also an adopted son of Mandaue.
Capulong earlier said NTC has to stop its production and assembly of Yamaha motorcycles in the Philippines as its technical collaboration agreement with Yamaha Motors Co. Ltd. of Japan will expire next month.
NTC filed a closure notice with the Dole last Friday.
Starting Sept. 1, the assembly of Yamaha motorcycles will be undertaken by Yamaha Motors Philippines, a wholly owned venture of Yamaha Motor Co. Ltd. of Japan. (EOB/AAG)
