Posted on Sep 3, 2020 at 6:29 PM
He will not have dragged. Barely two months after his arrival at the general management of Renault, Luca de Meo undertakes a vast reorganization of the group at Losange. He announced Thursday his plan to now organize the group by brand, and no longer by geography, as was the case until now.
The idea is to create four autonomous business units, which will each have their own boss, responsible for their income statement: Renault, Dacia, Alpine, and Nouvelles Mobilités. “This organization, classic in the auto industry, will allow each brand to develop a strong identity, and to be closer to customers”, explains one at Renault. Luca de Meo has already recruited two new designers for this, who will work with the “house” designer Laurens van den Acker: Gilles Vidal, debauched at PSA , and Alejandro Mesone-Romanos, whom he picked up from Seat, his former home.
Modernity and innovation
Luca de Meo will manage the Renault brand himself, which “must play with modernity and innovation”, he said in an interview with “Point”. The clearly stated objective is to bring the brand upmarket, by launching successful vehicles in the C segment of larger cars, more profitable, to complement that of city cars (Clio, ZOE ), its current strong point.
The Dacia brand will be entrusted to Denis Le Vot, until then commercial director of the group. The objective is to strengthen its “low cost” positioning, while giving it “a cooler image”, said Luca de Meo.
As for Alpine, it will be managed by Renault F1 director Cyril Abiteboul. While we could wonder in spring on Renault’s intention to keep the brand, of which the A110 is now only sold in small quantities, Luca de Meo has been perfectly clear since his arrival on his intention to maintain it. It has “a very specific niche identity, very sporty, very French. We will not necessarily remain in the only retro and classic register of the A110, ”he also specified.
Marketing relaunch
Finally, Renault will create a new division dedicated to new mobility, which will be entrusted to Clotilde Delbos, Deputy CEO and Financial Director of Le Losange. “The idea is to bring together all of our VTC or car-sharing activities, such as Karhoo or Zity, now scattered all over the place, and to make it a strong and more homogeneous brand,” explains a spokesperson. word. The name of this brand is not yet determined.
This new organization is the first stone of the strategic plan that Luca de Meo is to announce at the beginning of 2021. “We have to go quickly, the organization should then be in place to implement it without delay,” we continue at Renault. The group, which announced 7 billion euros in net losses in the first half of 2020, initiated at the end of May a extensive restructuring plan , resulting in 15,000 job cuts worldwide. But the group’s recovery will also have to go through a commercial relaunch, a component on which Luca de Meo is eagerly awaited.
To note
The new boss of Losange has also confirmed to “Point” his intention to refocus the group on Europe, where “the majority of the profits” are made.