Story & Photos by Ronald Rey M. de los Reyes
IT was once said that history preferred soaring speeches to quiet deeds. But for Suzuki Philippines, they’d rather honor both. In a revelry for the New Year, the motorcycle company gathered media friends to celebrate their achievements while working quietly the past year and the new 2019 that has just begun.
“Last year, we did things differently with fashion and style. This year, we will still continue with it,” said Suzuki Philippines President Hiroshi Suzuki in a speech at the middle of the celebrations held at House Manila in Resorts World, Pasay City.
“We promise not to stop and even move forward this 2019,” he added. Their record-breaking 2018 started with their milestone of 10,200 Suzuki Raider riders in attendance during their iconic annual Raider R150 Summit held at the World Trade Center in Pasay City.
Through the gargantuan crowd, the whole Team Suzuki family was able to collect funds for the fast rehabilitation of Marawi in their donation drive done in partnership with ABS-CBN Lingkod Kapamilya Inc. The impressive record number of attendees for 2018 amassed over P2.6 million for the “One Suzuki for Marawi.”
Ever since their unprecedented sales of 30,785 units in 2016 and thus topping the Underbone 150cc category data of the Motorcycle Development Program Participants Association, the Raider has proven its sheer dominance, and it continues to do so year after year as the motorcycle industry is adamantly growing (even projecting sales to hit 2 million units by 2022.)
Not to mention the Raider also captured the first-ever “Motorcycle of the Year” for the underbone category at the Car Awards Group Inc.’s awarding the previous year.
Next, Suzuki partnered with top local clothing company Bench and classy women’s wear Kashieca to stage their first-ever “Manila Fashion Collection Night.” To spice up the lifestyle event, Suzuki celebrity endorsers Enrique Gil and Liza Soberano showed up and modeled on ramp looking active and stylish with the new Suzuki Skydrive Sport—the brand’s latest scooter entry to contend with competition.
Other than these, the brand also took its talents to the race track with numerous celebrated victories under Suzuki-VMan Racing Team and Wheeltek, using the Raider R150 and the GSX-R, respectively.
Suzuki also staged an epic adventure weekend using the V-Strom late in the year wherein a total of 32 riders toured the scenic highways of the Mountain Province. From Manila, the whole team took the route of Cagayan Valley-Ifugao-Mountain Province-Halsema-Marcos Highway for a total of 416 kilometers.
The motorcycle maker was also busy with various unprecedented dealer expansions and brand activations in Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao.
“No words can describe how the year 2018 was for Suzuki Philippines, and these achievements wouldn’t be possible without the support of our media friends,” addressed Suzuki Philippines Managing Director and Treasurer Norminio Mojica to their avid supporters during his chance to speak in the party.
Ever seeing a positive future for the brand, Mojica even stated: “Cheers to a great 2018 and to an even greater 2019 ahead.”
Image credits: Ronald Rey M. de los reyes