Opel is reacting to the Russian market’s difficult environment by cutting one shift at its St. Petersburg plant and by naming Susanna Webber as the CEO of its Russian operations.
Webber was previously a member of the Management Board and Managing Director of Purchasing and Supply Chain at Opel Group. In addition, Opel said it would speed up supplier localization to better serve the St. Petersburg plant, which currently builds the Opel Astra and the Chevrolet Cruze. As for moving back to a one-shift operation, Opel said it will offer packages to enable voluntary employee separations.
“In 2013, Russia was our third biggest market behind the United Kingdom and Germany and is currently facing serious turbulences,” explained Dr. Karl-Thomas Neumann, Chairman of the Management Board of Opel Group.
“While we believe in the long term potential of Russia, there is significant immediate pressure on sales volumes and pricing while the ruble is deteriorating further. Since this is impacting our Opel Group business results and will continue to for the remainder of the year, we are taking measures now to limit our risk and stay on course,” the executive added.
Despite scaling back production, Opel said it remains committed to its investments in the GM Avtovaz joint venture as it prepares for the launch of the next-generation Chevrolet Niva in 2016. To support this project, new press and body shops as well as a new logistics center will be built in the Samara region.
In order to depend less on the depreciating ruble, Opel said one of its main goals in Russia is to reach a 60 percent average rate of supplier localization at its production sites.
New vehicle registrations in Russia declined 12.1 percent in the first eight months of this year, with GM’s combined market-share in Russia (Opel, Chevrolet and Cadillac) dropping from 9 percent to 7.8 percent in the same period.
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