According to the president of the management board of PSA, its group should not be afraid of change and adapt to a chaotic period. Carlos Tavares was the guest of the Club, the economy of the ” World “, Thursday, September 27.
The turnaround of PSA owes much to a european car market and global carrier. Is this going to continue ?
We had the chance, it is true, but we are already preparing for a less favorable situation. Our dead point of operating margin, from which the company earns money, has been lowered by 2.6 million cars, 1.5 million to 3 million cars produced, excluding those of Opel and Vauxhall. It is a protection. Look at BMW, who had just issued this week a warning on its results. This means that there is no established position. By 2030, we will live a period of extremely chaotic, full of risks and opportunities, typically darwinian. And, in order to survive in this environment, it will need to be able to turn and to push aside the fear of change. We have become the psychopaths of the performance.
In the past twelve months, you released Opel for more than twenty years of losses. How did you do it ?
As we have done with the PSA. By a reduction of fixed costs and variable costs and an improvement in unit revenues. For example, we have analyzed all sales channels and removed those that were selling at a loss. This can be done at the expense of the market share, but it bounced behind as the company has become much more effective.
Second item, the reduction in the fixed costs of 28 %. Of course, the numbers have been reduced, but in proportions much lower than the 50 000 jobs lost by Opel in the course of twenty years, during which the company lost nearly $ 19 billion [16.3 billion euros]. This…
