Alfa Maserati Cassino
Tavares' shield for Alfa in a coma
OPINIONS
Rodolfo Ruocco
January 25, 2021
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A shield from Stellantis to protect the former FCA Italian factories. Carlos Tavares, formerly at the helm of PSA, denies the fears of Italian workers and unions. He reassured the former FCA tricolor factories: "For Italy the good news is that Stellantis will act as a shield, as a protection for some factories, it does not represent a risk". The CEO of Stellantis, immediately after the formalization of the “equal merger” between the Peugeot group and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, wanted to personally get to know the Italian plants.
He left his Paris headquarters for a trip to Italy. On 20 January he visited Mirafiori (the cradle of Fiat), on 21 Melfi (the most advanced and productive plant with Jeeps and the 500 X), on 22 Cassino (the plant in severe crisis for Alfa Romeo sales in dive). Accompanied by John Elkann, who passed from the presidency of FCA to that of Stellantis (the Agnelli family is the relative majority shareholder with 14.4% of the shares), he wanted to know the plants, speak with the workers, discuss with the trade unions.
Italian fears are strong: will Stellantis favor France, which is politically and economically stronger than our country? In the new auto giant, which also sees the presence as a shareholder of the French government but not the Italian one, will the interests of Paris prevail?
Tavares, aware of these fears, spoke of a Stellantis shield for Italy. He reiterated: "Our commitment to the merger is not to close any production plant" and "to safeguard all jobs". It wasn't so obvious. There are those who feared that the commitment to employment was above all valid for the French part of the new auto giant born from the marriage between FCA and PSA, the fourth largest group in the world with over 8 million cars produced every year.
The fear was there and is because many Italian factories are in trouble, the use of layoffs is high. Mirafiori produces the electric Fiat 500 and expects other models, Cassino works at just 15% -20% of production capacity. Giulia and the Suv Stelvio, the two models of the Biscione, are not good. Especially the Alfa Romeo Giulia suffered a slump in sales. Other models have not arrived and only now will production of the new Maserati SUV start in Cassino: Grecale, also built in the electric version.
Tavares judged Cassino's Alfa models to be of good quality but penalized by uncalibrated marketing. He announced a relaunch of Alfa Romeo and Maserati which ended up in dire straits due to the failure of the promised new models: «The very high value of these iconic brands must be recognized. We will make assessments to understand how to support their growth and profitable remedies ». The new helmsman of Stellantis did not give details on the future business plan, but made it clear that part of the 5 billion euros resulting from the synergies produced by the merger will go to investments in the Biscione and Trident brands. Another high-end model should arrive in Cassino after the Grecale.
Somehow Tavares seems to want to resume and implement Sergio Marchionne's plan for Italy: to ensure life and employment in the factories of the Peninsula by focusing on premium brands. In 2017 the then CEO of FCA announced: "From 2020 in Italy the group will only have premium productions, with the Alfa Romeo and Maserati brands". He motivated the choice: "Our way to live in globalization is in the creation of global brands such as Jeep and iconic premium brands such as Alfa and Maserati". Unfortunately it did not happen. Marchionne died suddenly in July 2018. FCA investments went above all for the Jeep and for the American factories of the group, the sales of the Biscione and the Trident (the models are built in Grugliasco) collapsed at a glance.
Tavares has already performed a miracle: it saved Peugeot and Citroen from bankruptcy by focusing on quality, innovation and competitiveness. He incorporated Opel into the PSA group, protecting employment. Now the problem of the many different brands to be reorganized and integrated, avoiding the risk of production overlaps, is being raised. There will be an initial response when it presents the first Stellantis industrial plan.
Alfa Maserati Cassino
Tavares' shield for Alfa in a coma
OPINIONS
Rodolfo Ruocco
January 25, 2021
Share
0
A shield from Stellantis to protect the former FCA Italian factories. Carlos Tavares, formerly at the helm of PSA, denies the fears of Italian workers and unions. He reassured the former FCA tricolor factories: "For Italy the good news is that Stellantis will act as a shield, as a protection for some factories, it does not represent a risk". The CEO of Stellantis, immediately after the formalization of the “equal merger” between the Peugeot group and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, wanted to personally get to know the Italian plants.
He left his Paris headquarters for a trip to Italy. On 20 January he visited Mirafiori (the cradle of Fiat), on 21 Melfi (the most advanced and productive plant with Jeeps and the 500 X), on 22 Cassino (the plant in severe crisis for Alfa Romeo sales in dive). Accompanied by John Elkann, who passed from the presidency of FCA to that of Stellantis (the Agnelli family is the relative majority shareholder with 14.4% of the shares), he wanted to know the plants, speak with the workers, discuss with the trade unions.
Italian fears are strong: will Stellantis favor France, which is politically and economically stronger than our country? In the new auto giant, which also sees the presence as a shareholder of the French government but not the Italian one, will the interests of Paris prevail?
Tavares, aware of these fears, spoke of a Stellantis shield for Italy. He reiterated: "Our commitment to the merger is not to close any production plant" and "to safeguard all jobs". It wasn't so obvious. There are those who feared that the commitment to employment was above all valid for the French part of the new auto giant born from the marriage between FCA and PSA, the fourth largest group in the world with over 8 million cars produced every year.
The fear was there and is because many Italian factories are in trouble, the use of layoffs is high. Mirafiori produces the electric Fiat 500 and expects other models, Cassino works at just 15% -20% of production capacity. Giulia and the Suv Stelvio, the two models of the Biscione, are not good. Especially the Alfa Romeo Giulia suffered a slump in sales. Other models have not arrived and only now will production of the new Maserati SUV start in Cassino: Grecale, also built in the electric version.
Tavares judged Cassino's Alfa models to be of good quality but penalized by uncalibrated marketing. He announced a relaunch of Alfa Romeo and Maserati which ended up in dire straits due to the failure of the promised new models: «The very high value of these iconic brands must be recognized. We will make assessments to understand how to support their growth and profitable remedies ». The new helmsman of Stellantis did not give details on the future business plan, but made it clear that part of the 5 billion euros resulting from the synergies produced by the merger will go to investments in the Biscione and Trident brands. Another high-end model should arrive in Cassino after the Grecale.
Somehow Tavares seems to want to resume and implement Sergio Marchionne's plan for Italy: to ensure life and employment in the factories of the Peninsula by focusing on premium brands. In 2017 the then CEO of FCA announced: "From 2020 in Italy the group will only have premium productions, with the Alfa Romeo and Maserati brands". He motivated the choice: "Our way to live in globalization is in the creation of global brands such as Jeep and iconic premium brands such as Alfa and Maserati". Unfortunately it did not happen. Marchionne died suddenly in July 2018. FCA investments went above all for the Jeep and for the American factories of the group, the sales of the Biscione and the Trident (the models are built in Grugliasco) collapsed at a glance.
Tavares has already performed a miracle: it saved Peugeot and Citroen from bankruptcy by focusing on quality, innovation and competitiveness. He incorporated Opel into the PSA group, protecting employment. Now the problem of the many different brands to be reorganized and integrated, avoiding the risk of production overlaps, is being raised. There will be an initial response when it presents the first Stellantis industrial plan.