Volkswagen is creating an integrated commercial vehicles group – a structured framework for its mid-sized and heavy trucks and buses and a new group holding for the MAN and Scania brands.
Shares in Scania held by Volkswagen will be transferred to Truck & Bus. The wholly-owned subsidiary already holds 75.28% of the voting rights in MAN.
Truck & Bus will establish processes specific to the commercial vehicles business and will be headed by management board member Andreas Renschler with supervisory board chaired by group CEO Martin Winterkorn.
“MAN and Scania are strong, successful brands with a global reputation. Our clear objective is to become a global champion in trucks and buses, too,” he said.
“Our goal is to take the commercial vehicles holding to the top of our industry in terms of profitability, technologies and, above all, customer satisfaction. Bringing together our commercial vehicle brands under one roof means we can focus more strongly on the needs of the truck and bus business and can therefore accelerate the decision-making process.” Renschler said.
“In so doing, the MAN and Scania brands retain their independence, in line with Volkswagen’s basic principle.”
Truck & Bus will steer and coordinate cooperation among the three commercial vehicle companies MAN Truck & Bus, MAN Latin America and Scania.
The CEOs of MAN Truck & Bus, MAN Latin America and Scania will be represented in the management of Truck & Bus. The aim is to coordinate strategy, development, human resources, purchasing and other issues across the brands. This will lead to closer networking among the brands, shorter decision-making paths and swifter implementation.
Group works council chairman Bernd Osterloh, said: “Together with our colleagues from MAN and Scania we supported the creation of such a holding. We need clear structures in the group in order to act swiftly and flexibly in the various business areas. At the same time, the holding strengthens employees’ participation rights. For the first time in a supervisory board, employee representatives from MAN, Scania and Volkswagen will discuss the right strategies for our integrated commercial vehicles group together with the shareholders.”
Osterloh will be a member of the supervisory board of Truck & Bus. He will be joined on the controlling body of the integrated commercial vehicles group by one further employee representative from Volkswagen and two employee representatives each from MAN and Scania.
Volkswagen (light) Commercial Vehicles will also form part of the integrated group and will report to Renschler; furthermore, the brand will continue to maintain close ties with the passenger cars brand.
