All General Motors brands are safe in the automaker’s portfolio, a senior executive has told US dealers.
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Dow Jones said a letter from sales chief Mark LaNeve was in response to a Wall Street Journal report, citing sources familiar with the matter, that the automaker was considering whether to close or sell more of its eight brands.
LaNeve singled out Saturn, the brand mentioned in the Journal article as “under examination” along with Buick, Pontiac, GMC and Saab, for defence.
“We engage you, our dealers, in this process of improving our business…that is the extent of the ‘examination’ that is going on at this time for Saturn or any other GM brand,” he said in the letter obtained by the news agency. “There is no breaking news here.”
But he added that GM was looking for ways to make its brands more profitable in a challenging US market, Dow Jones reported.
GM spokesman Tom Wilkinson told the news agency the letter was intended to ease dealer worries.
GM has publicly stated that Hummer is up for grabs and the Wall Street Journal had said that only Chevrolet and Cadillac were safe.
Chevrolet, with Korean GM-Daewoo products, has spearheaded a surge in GM sales in eastern Europe recently.
