The Volkswagen has released a statement announcing plans that each of its lead brands will in future assume “steering responsibility” for clearly defined regions of the world.
The German multinational explained that this was part of its organisation’s “structural realignment”.
The Volkswagen brand itself will assume responsibility for North America, South America and the Sub-Saharan region (including South Africa). The Seat brand will be responsible for the North African market, while Audi will co-ordinate the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region, except China (this responsibility will be retained by the VW Group itself).
Škoda is to cover the markets of Russia and India and is tasked with “sustainably” strengthening the market position of the VW Group in the growing market of India. In this regard, VW says preparations for the local development and production of the new, “technically ground-breaking volume models” are already underway.
The VW Group adds that the objective of assigning responsibility for the regions is to tailor the model range to the relevant market requirements and customers’ needs “rapidly and effectively” on the basis of regional knowledge and competences and through intensive co-operation with local partners.
In future, the statement adds, the regional lead brand will be tasked with synchronising the VW Group strategy for its region in liaison with the brands in the region, as well as co-ordinating brand activities, partnerships and the exploitation of synergy effects.
“We are distributing the responsibility across several shoulders. This means that it will be possible to take decisions in a significantly more decentralised way in the future and the group board of management will be able to concentrate on overarching strategic topics. This way, we will make Volkswagen faster, slimmer and more efficient,” said Herbert Diess, CEO of the Volkswagen Group.
