I should feel satisfied and vindicated by news like this, but it’s hard to do so when it means the livelihoods of a large number of people are placed in danger.
Albert VDB has sent through some news from Holland about Kroymans, the big Dutch importer who are the importer for Cadillac in Europe. Cadillac have been dumped.
Staff at the Cadillac & Corvette Experience Center in Breukelen were told of the initial plans late last week and word leaked to the Dutch newspaper, Telegraaf. This has now been confirmed.
The news translation from the original Dutch almost reads like a carbon copy of Rick Wagoner’s answers before Congress last week:
We’re preparing for the future and the recession of course also plays an important role. We have obviously made mistakes but which are in progress, now that happens once. We now go through the pain to go there more to come . This implies that the less well-performing enterprises are divested and profitable businesses that we will give extra attention.
So Kroymans are dropping Cadillac.
That means it’s most likely up to GM Europe to carry the can for the brand there, if they’re game enough to do so.
Maybe this whole worldwide recession thing, combined with the “nobody’s been buying Cadillacs in Europe anyway” thing, will be enough to convince GM Europe that it needs to invest in one of its native European brands that’s already in place, accepted, and in dire need of a fresh, rightsized model mix.
A move like that should be made from a position of strength, not as an act of desparation.
Cadillac didn’t have the vehicles in place to make a European move. It was the sheer force of Detroit’s will that saw them there, with a goal of selling 20,000 vehicles annually by 2010. That goal saw millions and millions of Euros invested with only around 25% of that goal fulfilled, if that.
I hope GM Europe take a good hard look at the business case for Cadillac in Europe and realise that right now, it’s a total waste of resources that could be better spent elsewhere. Continuing the debacle would be a textbook case of throwing good money after bad, which they can ill afford to do right now.
Plow that money into a new Saab 9-3 by 2012 and watch them profit.
Condolences to the people who at Kroymans who are going to be affected by this. It’s not only Caddy, Corvette and Hummer that are facing the axe. Kroymans also imports Saab and Alfa Romeo.
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Thanks Albert!!
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With any luck we won’t get the damned things here in Oz now either!
What was it… Something like 4,000 Cadillacs sold in Europe last year? If that’s true, I wonder what advertising, dealer network specific stuff, distribution, etc. cost per sold car…
Markac, go get those lotto numbers, or horses or whatever.
I guess BLS production will stop too.
I didn’t get it until now when I looked around on the net…
On October 1, 2003, the company signed an agreement with General Motors for the exclusive distribution of Cadillac and Corvette in Europe. For this purpose, a subsidiary company, Cadillac & Corvette Europe B.V., was set up in Breukelen, the Netherlands.
So this Kroymans is the Cadillac importer for the whole of Europe? Interesting…
Maybe now GM will see their misstake?
One word – GREAT!!
Grumpy: I’ll buy a powerball ticket tomorrow! I guess you know something?
“Grumpy: I’ll buy a powerball ticket tomorrow! I guess you know something?”
Intriguing!
Is Grumpy actually Swade in disguise?
Put those resources to better use in SAAB. Let’s see if we can start a new anti-caddy cause:
Keep turbos out of Caddilac!*
*Caddies are nice enough cars and they are everywhere here in the US, but I don’t like them enough to thrive at the expense of SAAB.
Whilst my family would normally say I definitely am grumpy most of the time, I’m not on this occasion.
Sorry. I didn’t mean to imply anything!
So Croymans has given up on Cadillac.
This turn of events brings to mind a funny scene from almost ten years ago.
It was Press Day at the annual Geneva Salon (Geneva automobile show). I was standing on the GM stand when the head of the Cadillac division spoke. During his presentation he mentioned that Cadillac was launching a major push in Europe (his words). He said the goal was 1500 units a year. GM folks like to refer to cars and trucks as “units.” As one who loves automobiles and the automobile business, this has always rubbed me the wrong way. Can anyone envision a couple saying over dinner: “Hey,
tomorrow’s Saturday. Let’s go shopping for a unit.”
At the time the, largest Cadillac dealer in the world was Potamkin Cadillac in New York City. When the Caddy chieftain mentioned a goal of “1500 units,” a voice from behind me commented, “Fifteen hundred? In all of Europe? I think Vic Potamkin loses than many each year.”
Quite a lot of giggling from the American journalists in the crowd followed. The Cadillac General Manager was not amused.
Bob
Santa Barbara CA
“Units”?
Guilty, Bob. On a monthly basis.
I repent.
Numbers can be fun. Found this in an article from January 2007. The highlights…
Cadillac’s real push into Europe started in 2003. Cadillac said it would take time and set a modest opening target of 20,000 in 2010. The history: 2,000 in 2005, 3,000 in 2006, 4,500 in 2007. Interestingly, Kroymans still said in 2006 that 20,000 was the target for 2010.
In 2006, 1,300 of those 3,000 were the BLS on sale from April that year. That probably rose the year after with the introduction of the BLS Wagon.
Analyst firm CSM Worldwide said the volume would be 7,000 to 8,000 in 2010 with about 50% accounted for by the BLS. J.D.Power said in 2006 that Cadillac would sell 16,000 in 2010, but in 2007 lowered that to between 6,000 and 7,000.
Bob,
You sure the dealers name wasn’t Potemkin?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potemkin_village