Truck brands to stand on their own feet under new commercial accountability move
The Volvo Group has reshuffled its trucking businesses in a move that will see Volvo Trucks, UD Trucks, Renault Trucks and Mack Trucks function as four separate units.
The automotive giant says the changes, which will also be reflected in a new executive board, will mean each division will be responsible for its own profits and losses.
Coming into effect on March 1, Volvo president and CEO Martin Lundstedt says the reshuffle will streamline decisions and enable brands to take responsibility of their performance.
“This is an important change in how we conduct our truck business, with an expanded mandate for our sales organisations to control and develop their businesses with an explicit responsibility for profitability and organic growth,” Lundstedt says.
“We will gain a simpler organization in which decisions are made more quickly and in closer cooperation with the customer, while each truck brand will be represented on the Group Executive Board with shared responsibility for optimising Volvo Group’s overall truck business.”
Volvo’s trucking arm has been on a rollercoaster ride in recent times, with years of growth turning into restructures and saving strategies, and the Volvo chief says it is time to enter a new phase with an increased customer focus.
“The efforts in recent years to realise synergies between our various brands have yielded results and created the possibility to now make the Volvo Group the most desired transport solution provider in the world,” Lundstedt says.
“The goal of the new governance model is for all of the Group’s business areas to be driven along the same distinct business principles, whereby each area can follow and optimise its own earnings performance in both the short and long term.”
Volvo says the new plans do not include changes to employee numbers at this stage, and product development and production will stay the same.
The new 13-person Volvo Group board will be:
- Martin Lundstedt, President and CEO
- Jan Gurander, Deputy CEO and CFO
- Claes Nilsson, Volvo Trucks
- Joachim Rosenberg, UD Trucks
- Bruno Blin, Renault Trucks
- Dennis Slagle, Mack Trucks
- Martin Weissburg, Volvo CE
- Torbjörn Holmström, Group Trucks Technology
- Mikael Bratt, Group Trucks Operations
- (Under recruitment), Group Trucks Purchasing
- Sofia Frändberg, Group Legal & Compliance
- Kerstin Renard, Group Human Resources
- Henry Sténson, Group Communication & Sustainability Affairs