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SO GM KEEPS OPEL AND VAUXHALL AFTER ALL…..
By Christopher | November 11, 2009
In what can only be described as the mother and father of all U turns GM plans to stay in Europe with Opel and Vauxhall and scrap the planned Magna deal. Much confusion all round; re-structuring will still have to be carried out and money found in the UK, Germany and Spain to help it all along.
As a generality governments do not like surprises and it is obvious that Germany felt it had a high degree of control over the Magna deal and now looks to be back at the starting line in the new deal. Jobs being the watch word.
The saving grace in all this is that New GM has had the sense to temporarily transfer Nick Reilly from his present Far East duties to oversee the bedding down of Opel and Vauxhall after months of GM saying it did not want them. We all know Nick as an excellent operator who did his best to “save” the Luton car plant and looked surprised and in agony in equal measure on the day his then European bosses announced its closure. So there is a real chance that under his management he will make it work and maximise the alleged “improving market conditions” which made GM change its mind and keep the business.
In my opinion this global recession is forcing many companies to now do what they should have done before but which seemed a bit difficult in the good times so procrastination set in. So I close with a heretical thought. Possibly, just possibly, this is the moment to drop the Vauxhall brand name? A thousand reasons will be produced why this simply cannot be done – but perhaps this is the moment to do it – especially as the European operations are not directly governed by the US Asset Relief Programme bail out conditions.
Christopher Macgowan
Topics: Manufacturing, Marketing | No Comments »