September 10, 2024 04:44 AM

VW Group switches Seat finance chief to struggling VW brand

The management shuffle comes after VW said it was considering closing factories in Germany as it battles a shrinking European market and rising competition from China.

Reuters

VW

David Powels started his career at Volkswagen South Africa in 1989. He has worked for VW in Germany and Brazil and China.

BERLIN -- The finance chiefs at Volkswagen Group's Seat and VW brands are swapping roles as the auto group looks to inject fresh urgency into a cost-cutting drive at VW that has seen the brand contemplate unprecedented factory closures in Germany.

The company said in a press release on Sept. 9 that David Powels, chief financial officer at Spanish-based subsidiary Seat, would change positions with VW CFO Patrik Andreas Mayer.

Powels will be responsible, "under even more difficult conditions", for designing a competitive cost base and improving synergies between the group's core brands, VW brand CEO Thomas Schaefer said in the statement.

These brands include Volkswagen Passenger Cars, Skoda, Seat/Cupra and Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles.

VW

Patrik Andreas Mayer began his career at the VW in 1997 as an international trainee in Wolfsburg. He has held management positions with the automaker in Spain, the U.S., Germany and Russia.

VW said last week it was considering closing factories in Germany for the first time as it battles a shrinking European market and rising competition from China and elsewhere.

The VW brand is falling behind on a €10-billion ($11 billion) cost-cutting drive initiated in December which management says does not go far enough for it to hit its goal of a 6.5 percent operating margin by 2026.