The appointment of a non-GM person reflects the way the US giant is moving as is the way it has dealt with the recall crisis in the US.
Tim Tozer admits he was surprised when he was offered the job, coming from a background as boss of Mitsubishi in Europe and Mazda in the UK. But he also has a strong retail background with Inchcape International and Autobinck in Holland, his last post before moving to head up Vauxhall operations in the UK and Ireland.
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But there has been a need for a shift in company culture. Tozer said: “If you dig into the history of GM some issues have been deeply cultural. With Mary Barra and Dan Amman in charge you can see they are intent on changing the company culture.”
Two weeks after Barra took the helm, the ignition recall crisis landed on her desk but Tozer is full of admiration for the way she has handled the issue in a very open way. “There is a change in the way the company is going,” he said. “I was surprised I got the job because these positions historically have been filled within GM, but there is renewed optimism particularly in Europe and the investment tap has been turned on again.
“We have a lot of new cars coming through as well a new powertrains and we are well on the road towards financial stability with breakeven expected in Europe in 2016.”
Tozer’s biggest task is defining Vauxhall as a brand and building a business that is sustainable. He is currently talking to agencies about the best way to market the “Griffin” marque and the first fruits of this will be seen in a few months’ time with the launch of the new Corsa.
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By GlobalDataHe said: “Vauxhall is not a cheap brand or a premium one, it is generalist in that its products appeal across the spectrum. It is value, but that is a term that has been hijacked in recent years and we need to get that word back because what Vauxhall can offer is great value and great engineering.
“Value doesn’t necessarily mean cheap and post-economic crisis you see a shift in the way people look at purchases. For example there are many people in the UK CD socio economic sector that now shop in places like Aldi or Lidl where they wouldn’t before – the stores were considered cheap rather than good value.”
Tozer’s predecessor set a target of overtaking Ford as UK’s number one best seller in the UK, but it is not a course the new boss is pursuing. “You can’t underestimate Ford,” he said. “It is not a great idea to try and outsell them at any cost – which we could do if we chased the daily rental market. But we can give them a run for their money.”
He pointed to Vauxhall’s small cars, the Adam, upcoming Corsa and the new city car, which will almost certainly be called Viva in the UK but it is understood will be sold under another name elsewhere.
Tozer said: “These are all small cars but they play in the market in different ways. The important thing is that we give the Vauxhall brand a strong strategic direction. There is a lot of passion for the brand in the UK, both within and outside the business, but people don’t necessarily understand it and I don’t think GM has for a while. The brand has not been invested in, nurtured or developed and has jogged along on the ups and downs of the products.
“In many ways the individual nameplates are understood better than the Vauxhall brand itself. If you ask someone on the street you will get a myriad of different answers. Getting a clear brand identity is work in progress at the moment.”
Simplicity is also key for Tozer. “There is too much complexity in the model line-ups; I couldn’t even work out a specification for a Corsa on our own website. We have already reduced the line-up on Meriva while we have cut the derivatives on the upcoming Corsa by one third.”
Tozer admitted that he was disappointed that the Ampera EV with range extender had not done better for Vauxhall or Opel and described it as a car “ahead of its time”, and launched into a market in the middle of an economic downturn.
He said: “You could compare it with the Toyota Prius which took a while and a lot of marketing spend before it became a success with its second generation”. GM, he added, had neither the time nor the money to put behind Ampera.
“But at Vauxhall we do have the money available to market the brand better and you will see in future more Vauxhall-specific marketing; we will no longer be forced by financial constraints to use pan-European campaigns.”
See also: INTERVIEW: GM President Dan Ammann
