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Some interesting insight on not being "tightly focused" on Saab...
GM sales chief says automaker needs all brands
Friday February 10, 4:20 PM EST
ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - General Motors Corp. (GM) needs to maintain its current North American brands despite pressure to shed some as part of a broader restructuring, a top executive said on Friday.
GM's largest individual investor, billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, has called on the No. 1 automaker to consider eliminating Saab and possibly Hummer in order to focus attention on turning around its loss-making U.S. manufacturing operations.
Kerkorian adviser Jerome York, who urged GM to pare its brand line-up in a widely watched speech last month, joined the company's board this week.
But Mark LaNeve, GM's vice president of North American vehicle sales, told a group of auto dealers and industry executives that GM's current brand strategy could work as it invests to turn around lagging nameplates like Pontiac and Buick.
"In spite of all the great advice we have been getting and I am sure we will continue to get until we turn our finances around, this is where we stand on the issue," he said.
LaNeve said Saab had badly underperformed Ford Motor Co.'s (F) Volvo division, another Scandinavian brand, because Volvo has maintained a sharper consumer identification with safety, while the Saab message was more muddled.
"It's fair to say that we haven't been real tightly focused on what segments we're going to compete in," he said of the Saab division. "Everyone knows Volvo stands for safety and no one was sure what Saab stands for. The products were just as good, if not better."
LaNeve said GM had reduced its dealer count by about 20 percent over the past decade, a period in which it lost about 10 percent of its sales.
He said GM would be "opportunistic" in cutting back on dealerships in order to protect the profitability of those sales operations, but cautioned that dealer margins would remain under pressure.
"There's just so much competition," he said. "Our margins are under pressure. New car margins are under pressure because you've got oversupply."
GM stock was down 23 cents, or 1.04 percent, at $21.91 a share in late day trade on the New York Stock Exchange.
posted by 66.208.34...
, Fri, 10 Feb 2006 19:54:29, Fri, 10 Feb 2006 17:53:54
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