Dati della ristrutturazione Di Volkswagen

[daimlerchrysler]

Articolo preso da autonews.

VW details savings plan to hit 2008 profit goal

Reuters / July 13, 2005

FRANKFURT -- Forging ahead amid a damaging bribery scandal, Volkswagen laid out on Wednesday details of its plan to boost net profit by 4 billion euros ($4.9 billion) by 2008 while improving quality at its core VW brand.

Europe's biggest carmaker is targeting savings and performance enhancements of more than 10 billion euros to reach this net profit target, a source close to the company said.

"All brands together are expected to cut costs and enhance their performance by at least 10 billion euros by 2008," the source said, adding, though, that "this (sum) is not an earnings improvement target".

The Volkswagen brand passenger car operation alone aims to contribute 7 billion euros to the total.

VW detailed its savings targets in slides posted on the Internet before an eagerly awaited conference call by former star Chrysler manager Wolfgang Bernhard -- brought in this year to turn around the VW Brand Group.

The group's core VW brand aims to save over 3 billion euros on material costs, 1 billion on production costs, 500 million on overhead and 500 million on warranty costs, while improving its performance in sales and distribution by over 2 billion.

As part of a quality drive, Bernhard plans to halve warranty claims for VW brand cars that are up to 12 months old.

The group reiterated its target of hitting a 9 percent return on investment but gave no timetable for this.

Traders said the market was disappointed that VW had not announced even tougher steps to boost earnings such as closing a plant in high-wage Germany.

The stock has outperformed the index by more than 10 percent so far this year as investors bank on a significant turnaround in VW earnings in the future.

Separately, Volkswagen's supervisory board was set to accept the resignation of embattled personnel chief Peter Hartz after the board's steering committee unanimously agreed he should go, VW board member Christian Wulff told reporters.

Wulff, who is also premier of the carmaker's biggest shareholder, the state of Lower Saxony, said after a steering committee meeting that he had "no doubt" the full board would accept Hartz's departure to take political responsibility for a bribery scandal.

Sostanzialmente c' è ancora molto da fare per migliorare i conti del gruppo in particolare quelli del marchio Volkswagen. Bernhard ha preparato un piano aggressivo anche se non "lacrime e sangue" come quello di Chrysler. Per ora non si prevedono chiusure di stabilimenti, ma ogni modello che sostituirà il precedente dovrà costare meno ( tra i 1000 e i 2000 euro). Sono confermati il suv e la nuova polo per il 2007 e da qui al 2010 10 modelli per il marchio Vw. Più o meno è la stessa strategia utilizzata con successo con il gruppo Chrysler. Speriamo in bene.