TOKYO, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Japanese automaker Fuji Heavy Industries, maker of Subaru cars, believes the secret to being big is to stay small.
Subaru's 4-wheel-drive, boxer-engined vehicles are particularly popular in the United States, and global sales are up 11 percent from a year ago. The company expects record annual sales of 807,000 vehicles this financial year.
And Fuji Heavy Chief Executive Officer Yasuyuki Yoshinaga is targeting to expand annual sales by 25 percent to 1 million vehicles in the future, but will then hit the brakes.
"It's better if we don't get ourselves stuck in a situation where costs and volumes matter because bigger companies would have advantages," Yoshinaga told Reuters on the sidelines of this week's Tokyo Motor Show.
"We will aim for 1 million vehicles but not beyond that."
Fuji Heavy, the smallest carmaker in Japan, has a global market share of about 1 percent.
Last month Fuji Heavy announced its sixth production capacity expansion plan in barely a year. The company has the best operating profit margin among Japan's seven passenger carmakers.