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In management overhaul, GM merges European units
International Herald Tribune
Saturday, June 19, 2004
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RÜSSELSHEIM, Germany - General Motors announced a major overhaul of its unprofitable European operations Friday in an effort to streamline the business by bringing its units Adam Opel, Vauxhall Motors and Saab Automobile under a single management structure.
GM said the head of the Germany-based Opel, Carl-Peter Forster, would take over as president of GM Europe at its headquarters in Zurich, with the heads of Vauxhall, based in Britain, and Saab, the Swedish division, reporting to him. Forster in turn will report to Frederick Henderson, who took over as president of GM Europe this month and now gets the new title of chairman.
The company said its plans would speed decision making and increase efficiency.
"You can read from this that the sales and marketing of the different brands at GM Europe will be one," Henderson said during a conference at Opel's headquarters here. "The results in Europe are not acceptable," he said. He did not say when the division would be profitable.
GM's European operations have been losing money since 1999 despite an ambitious restructuring plan, and the company recently had to backtrack from predictions that GM Europe would break even or make a profit this year.
While GM as a whole earned $1.3 billion in the first quarter, GM Europe remained the weak spot, seeing its losses widen to $116 million from $65 million a year earlier.
Market share slipped to 9.5 percent from 9.6 percent in a sluggish European auto market.
The management overhaul is being undertaken to cut duplication and to move the finance, engineering, buying, manufacturing, sales and marketing operations of the different units into "pan-European" departments, GM said.
The company will also create a single design unit, which will "align" work being done on new Opel, Vauxhall and Saab models.
Succeeding Forster as head of Opel is Hans Demant, who will keep his earlier responsibilities as vice president for engineering for GM Europe. The heads of Vauxhall and Saab will report to Forster.
Auto industry analysts said they were not convinced that GM was being bold enough in its reorganization in Europe.
Article Here
Hans Demant:
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International Herald Tribune
Saturday, June 19, 2004
RÜSSELSHEIM, Germany - General Motors announced a major overhaul of its unprofitable European operations Friday in an effort to streamline the business by bringing its units Adam Opel, Vauxhall Motors and Saab Automobile under a single management structure.
GM said the head of the Germany-based Opel, Carl-Peter Forster, would take over as president of GM Europe at its headquarters in Zurich, with the heads of Vauxhall, based in Britain, and Saab, the Swedish division, reporting to him. Forster in turn will report to Frederick Henderson, who took over as president of GM Europe this month and now gets the new title of chairman.
The company said its plans would speed decision making and increase efficiency.
"You can read from this that the sales and marketing of the different brands at GM Europe will be one," Henderson said during a conference at Opel's headquarters here. "The results in Europe are not acceptable," he said. He did not say when the division would be profitable.
GM's European operations have been losing money since 1999 despite an ambitious restructuring plan, and the company recently had to backtrack from predictions that GM Europe would break even or make a profit this year.
While GM as a whole earned $1.3 billion in the first quarter, GM Europe remained the weak spot, seeing its losses widen to $116 million from $65 million a year earlier.
Market share slipped to 9.5 percent from 9.6 percent in a sluggish European auto market.
The management overhaul is being undertaken to cut duplication and to move the finance, engineering, buying, manufacturing, sales and marketing operations of the different units into "pan-European" departments, GM said.
The company will also create a single design unit, which will "align" work being done on new Opel, Vauxhall and Saab models.
Succeeding Forster as head of Opel is Hans Demant, who will keep his earlier responsibilities as vice president for engineering for GM Europe. The heads of Vauxhall and Saab will report to Forster.
Auto industry analysts said they were not convinced that GM was being bold enough in its reorganization in Europe.
Article Here
Hans Demant:
. When is that gonna be out!? They said June but i still can't build one on the website.......... <_<
