In a somewhat surprising move, Nissan today announced that its Infiniti luxury brand would establish its new global headquarters in Hong Kong.
Nissan originally launched the Infiniti brand in 1989 exclusively for the North American market but has since expanded its marketing operations to include the Middle East, Russia, Europe, South East Asia and other regions.
The Japanese automaker justified the decision to headquarter the company in Hong Kong by arguing that Infiniti seeks to lift total global sales to 500,000 vehicles a year and that China will play a significant role in achieving this goal.
“As Infiniti grows its presence in the global luxury markets of North America, Europe, China and South East Asia, we selected Hong Kong as the optimum location for our new global Infiniti headquarters,” said Andy Palmer, Executive Vice President of Nissan.
“We see an opportunity to reinforce Asian hospitality within the Infiniti brand, distinct from both Nissan and our facing luxury competitors. We are proud to be the only automaker that will call Hong Kong home,” he added.
The automaker said that the Infiniti’s new global headquarters will be co-located with Nissan Global Company Limited (NGL), with operations set to start in April of 2012.
Among other tasks to be handled from Hong Kong will be parts of Nissan’s Global Marketing Communications function.
