Major change for Mini
Matt Schmidt has been appointed as the new general manager of Mini Australia and New Zealand and will be working with dealerships on both sides of the ditch from July 1.
He will lead the marque in developing long-term sales and marketing strategies, and has been part of BMW Group Australia’s management team for the past 17 years.
Schmidt, pictured, moves into the role after being national BMW sales manager for operations and planning in Australia, which has included overseeing production planning of wholesale and retail stock management. He has previously worked as sales manager of BMW Special Vehicles and in a number of marketing communication roles for BMW and Mini.
He succeeds Brett Waudby, who is taking on the head of retail network position and will oversee sales operations for the BMW brand across Australia.
Wolfgang Buechel, chief executive of BMW Group Australia, says: “Brett and Matt are two experienced leaders with considerable knowledge of the BMW Group brands.
“They have brought important change and growth to both BMW and MINI and their expertise will be of great benefit to their new positions and their new teams.”
Under Waudby’s leadership, Mini has recorded double-digit sales growth across the New Zealand and Australian markets.
BMW says its year-to-date registrations to the end of June 2021 were 11,030 – which was an 18.9 per cent increase on the previous year – while Mini sales hit 1,528, for a 39 per cent rise.
