Suzuki sales totaled 1,626 units last month, making it the best April sales month for Suzuki Australia on record.

The April sales result continued a remarkable run of 17 straight months of increased sales and confirmed Suzuki Australia’s position as one of the fastest growing brands in the country.

“We have improved every month-on-month sales result since December 2006,” said Suzuki Australia General Manager Tony Devers.

"It’s a great effort that demonstrates just how popular the Suzuki brand has become in recent times."

"Even more important is the fact we’ve managed to achieve such phenomenal sales growth while competing in less than half of the market segments."

“Every model in the line-up continues to record strong sales and with the addition of exciting new models in the next 18 months we are on track to hit our target objective of 40,000 sales in 2010,” said Devers.

The April sales result arrived as parent company Suzuki Motor Corporation (SMC) announced another record fiscal year result.

In the 2007 fiscal year (April 2007-March 2008) SMC recorded several highlights, including:

• Increased consolidated sales for the ninth consecutive year
• Increased operating income for the eighth consecutive year
• Increased ordinary income for the eighth consecutive year, and
• Increased net income for the seventh consecutive year

Global automobile production was up more than 9 per cent over the previous year and totaled 2,636,987 units. It marks the fourth consecutive year global production has exceeded two million units.

Japanese production exceeded one million units for the fourth consecutive fiscal year and the final figure of 1,219,408 marked an all-time high.

Overseas production also reached a record number, totaling 1,417,579 units and representing an 18 per cent increase on the 2006 fiscal year figure.

Consolidated sales increased 10.7 per cent to just over 3.5 trillion yen, operating income rose 12.4 per cent to 149.4 billion yen, ordinary income was up 12.7 per cent to 156.9 billion yen and net income increased 7 per cent to 80.2 billion yen.

Global sales for the 2007 fiscal year numbered a record 2,405,487 units, with overseas sales accounting for 72 per cent of that figure. Total overseas sales were 1,732,228 – up 13 per cent on the 2006 fiscal year number.

As a result of the positive financial figure, SMC has modified its five-year plan for 2005-2010 with a new three year plan encompassing 2008-2011.

The new three year plan will target a consolidated sales amount of four trillion yen in the 2010 fiscal year.

A large proportion of those sales is expected to come from India, where Maruti Suzuki has drawn up a 5-year investment plan of $US22.5 billion by 2010.

The key areas of investment will also be to develop R & D capability and infrastructure to develop a full model at Maruti, and also help develop products for other Suzuki operations throughout Asia.

Maruti Suzuki also expects to export 200,000 cars by 2010, and lead India's quest to be a global manufacturing hub for compact cars.

Suzuki attaches great value and significance to Maruti's R&D. In addition to the planned capital investments, fresh investment of US $1.8 billion has been allocated towards developing a dedicated Research & Development Centre in India, supporting Suzuki's global ambitions.