Volkswagen positions materialise

VOLKSWAGEN has appointed the managing director of its Japanese operation to head up its new, wholly owned subsidiary in Australia.

Mr Peter Nochar will make the move south to run the new operation, which starts business on January 1, 2001, from new premises in the Sydney suburb of Mascot.

Volkswagen is taking back the franchise from Inchcape Motors. Inchcape has relinquished control of the Audi, SEAT and Ferrari franchises in recent years and will soon surrender the Jaguar franchise to a joint venture with Ford's Premier Auto Group (PAG), which will take over importing responsibilities.

Inchcape will retain retail involvement with both Jaguar and Volkswagen.

The recruitment of staff to join Mr Nochar has already begun with Sydney-based automotive placement specialist Kris de Jager & Associates looking for 68 people for the new VW subsidiary.

Inchcape's VW branch currently employs about 35 people, begging the question why VW's staff will be twice as big. Speculation about VW reclaiming its Audi franchise in Australia from current importer Astre Automotive has been emphatically denied by both VW and Astre.

VW says its focus will be on establishing and positioning the major brand, and that other marques in the stable are not currently receiving attention VW owns Audi, SEAT, Skoda, Bentley, Bugatti and Lamborghini. Astre, which lost the Chrysler franchise in the merger with Daimler-Benz, handles Audi and Hyundai. It insists its Audi franchise is secure.

But Audi's local boss, Mr Matthias Seidl, has been called back to Ingolstadt to take up a new position on October 1. He leaves Astre at the end of this month but no successor has yet been appointed.

Negotiations are underway between Audi AG and Astre over the future of the Audi franchise here. A co-venture between the two firms is expected to be announced before the end of the year.