Volkswagen has taken another step to integrate its MAN and Scania truck brands, creating a new holding company devoted solely to commercial vehicles.
The new holding company is called simply ‘Truck & Bus Gmbh,’ neatly side-stepping the issue of brand priorities.
It will be led by Andreas Renschler, formerly boss of Daimler’s truck business. He quit Daimler in January last year to join Volkswagen, but contractual terms meant he didn’t start work as VW’s management board member for commercial vehicles until February this year.
“Truck & Bus GmbH will establish processes specific to the commercial vehicles business, thus leveraging the full synergy potential between the brands,” said VW.
Chief executives of MAN, Scania and MAN Latin America will sit on the new company’s management board.
“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,” claimed VW.
Renschler aims to out-perform his former employer Daimler. “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. In so doing, the MAN and Scania brands retain their independence, in line with Volkswagen’s basic principle,” he said.
The van business, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, will also come under the Truck & Bus umbrella but will retain close ties with VW’s car business because of the synergies between cars and vans.
The new structure comes just weeks after a VW internal power struggle between chairman Ferdinand Piech – grandson of Ferdinand Porsche – and chief executive Martin Winterkorn ended in the supervisory board giving 78-year-old Piech the choice of being fired or resigning. He chose the latter.
Volvo recently replaced its CEO with former Scania boss Martin Lundstedt.