The first female board member in the history of the VW brand headed the department for two years. Labbé wrote on the VW intranet that she had decided “to give priority to the things that now need priority for personal reasons. This includes health and family.”
So now Martin Sander. For the previous European head of ford it’s a comeback at Volkswagen. Sander had been with the team for more than 25 years before moving to Cologne in the summer of 2021 Audi worked. Among other things, he was in charge of sales in the meantime Germany and Europe.
A mammoth task awaits Sander in Wolfsburg. Sales play a key role in the savings plans of VW brand boss Thomas Schäfer (54). Schäfer must almost double VW’s operating return to 6.5 percent by 2026. Sales are expected to contribute around 4 billion euros in extra profit to the success of the program. How this should be possible is still an open question.
Labbé promised, among other things an improved pricing policy
. In the current situation, that seems to be there the discounts in the scene are increasing again
, hardly representable. And Volkswagen’s cost-cutting measures in terms of personnel – the car manufacturer is currently reducing severance payments including a turbo bonus – are initially costing. In China VW cannot keep up with domestic competition with its electric cars and CO2 regulations will be tightened in Europe next year. Sander has enough construction sites right from the start.
What’s next for the agency?
However, Sander also knows this from Ford. In his two years as head of Europe, he was primarily in demand at the brand as a troubleshooter. Ford reduced its range, the brand has already discontinued well-known models such as the Fiesta, the Focus will follow at the end of 2025. Sander therefore fought for a long time with the works council and unions over the Saarlouis plant. An investor has not yet been found. Although Ford is not closing the plant at the end of 2025 as initially planned, it will only be on the back burner until 2032 continue to operate with around 1,000 employees.
Sander had just cleared up an issue at Ford that is currently affecting all sales departments in the automotive industry. Contrary to what was planned, the car manufacturer in Europe is not switching to the so-called “agency model”. Dealers are downgraded to agents, and the manufacturer gains more power in sales. It’s quite exciting to see how Sander deals with the agency at VW. The agency has already implemented the sale of electric cars in some markets and plans to expand it to combustion engines in the future.
The German VW dealer association around President Dirk Weddigen von Knapp (69) has already announced massive resistance. Volkswagen is thereby endangering its business model.
Sander is still very familiar with Knapp’s Weddigen from his Audi days. Sander was nicknamed “GI” internally at Audi because of his high level of commitment. He will also need the “hard edge” for which the new VW sales boss was notorious in the Audi trade in a new place.