VW mulls new growth goal as it nears 2018 target
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CEO Martin Winterkorn's pay has nearly doubled as VW has boosted sales. |
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WOLFSBURG (Reuters) -- Volkswagen's top managers are drawing up new expansion goals stretching as far as nine years ahead as steady volume gains have already propelled the automaker within reach of its current sales target for 2018.
"We definitely need a new (growth) strategy," Bernd Osterloh, head of VW's works council, told reporters in Wolfsburg on Thursday.
VW's nine-member management board is pondering new targets that the automaker might reach by 2022, he said.
VW's existing roadmap, drawn up in 2007 when CEO Martin Winterkorn took office, lays out steps to become the world's biggest carmaker by 2018 by increasing annual sales to 10 million units that year.
The automaker increased global deliveries 11.2 percent last year to a record 9.1 million vehicles.
While ruling out that it will hit the 10-million goal as soon as this year, Osterloh said the carmaker "must consider whether 2018 is still the appropriate standard."
Pay limits
New growth goals may also lead executives to tighten rules on managers' pay at the German multi-brand automotive group, said Osterloh, who is also deputy head of VW's supervisory board.
Compensation guidelines at VW drew public criticism after Winterkorn's pay nearly doubled in 2011. The supervisory board is mulling steps to limit future increases in executives compensation and will take a decision on the matter at its next in late February, said Osterloh.
Winterkorn earned 17.5 million euros ($23.75 million) in fixed salary, bonuses and profit incentives in 2011, compared with 9.3 million euros a year earlier, making him the highest paid chief executive among Germany's top 30 companies listed on the DAX index.
"Winterkorn, with his salary, is being made the scapegoat for this debate driven by envy," said Osterloh. "The management board has come to the conclusion that this can't be fought out over the long term."
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