Hyundai Motor Company
Business History
The Hyundai Motor Company is a multinational automotive manufacturer based in South Korea. The company is the world’s fifth largest motor group. (Hyundai.co.uk). the motor group has its headquarters in Seoul in South Korea. Hyundai was started by Chung Ju-Yung in 1967. Its parent company is the Hyundai motor group. It owns Kia motors by 32.8%. The company has its main operations in Ulsan, South Korea. This unit has an annual production capacity of 1.6million units. Ulsan is the world’s largest automobile manufacturing plant. The company had its first model, the Cortina released in 1968. This was in corporation with Ford Motor Company. The company has since grown and is now one of the top 100 most valuable brands worldwide. In Canada, Hyundai Auto Canada Inc. was opened in 1989. It is a subsidiary of the Hyundai Motor Company. It was located in Bromont Quebec. The Bromont plant only operated for four years before failure. Hyundai Auto Canada Inc. operates without a plant. There are however plans to revive it since there was a boosts in sales in the year 2009. Hyundai Motor Company is currently run by Chung Mon-koo who is both the chairman and CEO of the motor company. The company says that its goal is not to become the biggest car company; rather it is to provide value for the future. This also doubles as the company’s vision statement. (worldwide.hyundai.com)
Production
The main products for Hyundai Motors Company are cars. The company produces brands such as Accent, Elantra and Veloster in Canada. There are also SUVs that Hyundai motors Company produces. Their target market is mostly people on a low budget but who would like all the accessories that a car owner needs. This is mostly the middle class population. Their target market is mainly people aged between 35 and 45 years of age who need a cheap and well equipped vehicle. The demand for the Elantra cars is so high that sometimes Hyundai is literally struggling to keep up. For Hyundai, less is more. This means that most dealers are usually unable to stock enough of the vehicles of this particular make. (Tuttle B, 2012). For a large industry like Hyundai, this should not be the case since it could lead to bankruptcy. The cars go through almost all the three stages of production before reaching the consumers. The most evident is the secondary stage, which is the overall production of the car to its sellable form. The construction of the engines and assembly of all the parts of the car are all in the secondary stage of production. Employees at Hyundai offer their services at the tertiary stage of production. In terms of productivity, it is clear that Hyundai is only able to rise to the 5th rank due to high productivity. Most of the Hyundai cars cost less than $21K for most compact cars. Most Elantra cars however cost more than $21K.((hyundaicanada.com) This is fairly cheap and most people can afford Hyundai cars. The company also offers favorable deals from time to time. Some of the fixed costs for Hyundai include interests and salaries paid to workers who work for the company. The variable costs include costs of raw materials such as metals and electricity used in the company. Hyundai is able to be operating on profit margins of 10% for the past few years. (m.seekingalpha.com)
Competition
Hyundai faces competition, not just in Canada but across the world. In the USA for example, we have Ford which offers strong competition for Hyundai. There are also companies such as General Motors Company which also manufacture quality cars. Hyundai has an advantage in that it aims at producing automobiles for the middle class population. While most brands will struggle to produce high quality cars that are more luxurious than necessary, Hyundai produces a cost effective and fuel efficient car. Hyundai does not however ignore innovation. It makes sure its cars are very innovative by including simple yet useful features such as cup holders in their cars. This makes sure Hyundai stays at the top of the market.
Summary
Hyundai is definitely one of the fastest rising automobile manufacturers in the world. It has a clear plan and vision for the future. It never fails to look at the options there are in the market. For this reason, Hyundai aims at going beyond the usual gas driven cars to producing electric cars. The main reasons for Hyundai’s success lie in the fact that the company aims at the middle class or average person. This group of people forms a majority of the population, not just in Canada but all over the world. It also makes it possible for some groups of people to afford cars such as college students. In general, Hyundai removes the common belief that cars are only for the rich people in society. Their main weakness is that the supply of their cars sometimes goes down. In Canada, another weakness is the lack of a plant. This means that the costs of shipping cars from other plants to Canada are highly elevated. In general, Hyundai is a successful automobile company.

Work Cited
History of Hyundai, Retrieved from www.hyundai.co.uk/about-us/think-you-know-hyundai/history
Tuttle B April, 24, 2014 The Automaker with a problem most people would envy, retrieved from business.time.com/2012/04/24/the-automaker-with-a-problem-most-businesses-would-envy
Corporate Information retrieved from worldwide.hyundai.com/WW/Corporate/CorporateInformation/CorporatePhilosophy/index.html
Hyundai: The World’s Most profitable Automaker, retrieved from m.seekingalpha.com/article/1666802
Hyundai Canada, Retrieved from m.hyundaicanada.com/#car_showrooms