FILE PHOTO: Visitors stand at the booth of Volkswagen’s truck unit Traton Group, former Volkswagen Truck & Bus AG, in Hanover, Germany September 19, 2018. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer/File Photo
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Volkswagen’s trucks business Traton wants to use alliances with rivals in China, the United States and Japan to tap into global growth and achieve a return on sales of nine percent, Chief Executive Andreas Renschler said on Tuesday.
Volkswagen is integrating Germany’s truck brands MAN and Sweden’s Scania as well as deepening cooperation deals with China’s Sinotruk, Navistar in the United States and Hino Motors in Japan.
“We want to be the most profitable vehicle player and to have access to all global profit pools and do this in a smart way,” Traton chief executive Andreas Renschler said at the company’s capital markets day in London.
Renschler told investors he wanted to expand into new profit pools using alliances like those with Navistar and Sinotruk.
“We want to develop this with our partner into a new dimension,” Renschler said.
Traton had already struck a partnership in the area of procurement with Japan’s Hino, which is also a partner for developing alternative powertrains, Renschler said.
“This is a great platform for future development.”
“Our strategic target is to achieve a 9 percent return on sales over the cycle,” Renschler said of Traton’s profit target.
Reporting by Edward Taylor; Editing by Alexander Smith