Mercedes Benz has estimated that all-in-all it will have brought €12 million to the Algarve from its two month staff training session in the Algarve.
The CS Group facilities at Herdade dos Salgados, Albufeira hosted Mercedes’ Global Training programme and provided an estimated 40,000 accommodation nights to the participants.
The Mercedes sales teams came from 54 countries and all 15,000 of them were trained in detail on the C-Class, the new SUV, the new V-Class van and the next big model, a coupé based on the top of the range S-class which is still under wraps.
Preparations started in January and the training comes to a close on April 12 with the support team finally leaving on April 16 for Germany, along with 320 cars and 33 logistics vehicles.
Over 80 charter flights were arranged to ferry staff to the Algarve and "in addition to the €10 million that Mercedes invested in this event, there was a local spend by the trainees, by the permanent Mercedes teams on site, and on contracting local services. The economy of the Algarve will have benefitted by approximately €12 million from this event," said a Mercedes Benz Portugal spokesman.
To Mário Azevedo Ferreira, the chief executive of the company that manages the defunct CS Group, in a recovery programme after its €1 billion + insolvency, the Mercedes event provided a turnover of €5 million at the tourist resort of Herdade dos Salgados.
The Germans seem to like Portugal as they soon will open a Mercedes museum in Sintra and are to launch another staff training session for its micro Smart car in Cascais this autumn.
The Algarve will get another look in though as the much anticipated C 63 AMG is scheduled to be tested at an ‘AMG driving school’ at the Algarve Autodrome in November 2014.
