John Buttermore, the interim chief executive of General Motors’ South Korean operations, plans to meet union leaders on Friday (20 January) to discuss reports that some production may be shifted to Europe.
Reuters reported GM could transfer some Chevrolet production from South Korea to Opel in Europe to ease over-capacity issues there.
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Unions in South Korea said a meeting with Buttermore had been planned to report on the plans, although a GM Korea spokesman declined to confirm that, but added that it was not unusual for a new chief executive to meet the union leader.
Former GM Korea chief Mike Arcamone resigned last week, sparking media speculation that Buttermore may lead the production shift from Korea to Europe. Montreal native Arcamone is joining Canadian firm Bombardier to head its commercial aircraft unit.
GM Korea has not commented on the speculation and any attempt to move production from the country could face strong opposition from the government and local shareholder, Korea Development Bank.
Korea is a small market for GM, but one of its key production bases, exporting Chevrolet cars to Europe and elsewhere and accounting for about 25% of its global production.
Last August, GM chief executive Dan Akerson said the company’s long-term strategy included plans to build Chevrolet cars in Europe, saying shipping cars from Korea was “maybe not the most efficient” method.
Former GM chief Arcamone took charge of GM Korea in late 2009 and increased its market share to 8.9% last year to nudge past Renault Samsung. For this year, he set an ambitious goal of a double-digit market share.
GM Korea officials told Reuters that many positives have taken place since late 2009 and Arcamone is responsible for a majority.
One of these was to change the company name to GM Korea in early 2011 and replace the Daewoo badge with Chevrolet, under which a total of eight new vehicles were launched last year.
Arcamone also initiated the Chevy Care aftersales services last year that the Korea Productivity Centre has praised as one of the best customer-oriented services of 2011.
