Paris - PSA Peugeot Citroen, fighting to recover from crisis with the help of a new Chinese shareholder, presented a global recovery strategy on Monday, although this didn't prevent its shares from slumping on the day.
The group is set to reposition its brands in markets around the globe, and notably in Asia, as well as pursue cost cuts and put all its efforts into raising profits and building a money-making culture.
The group would focus overall on a culture of performance and global branding.
New chief executive Carlos Tavares told a conference for analysts that the group had to change mentality. "The profit culture is a point on which we are going to focus," he said.
"Cash is king," he added, referring to the important business principle of paying close attention to how money is used relative to the speed with which it is earned.
A crippling problem for PSA Peugeot Citroen in recent years has been the speed at which it has used up cash resources, to the point of needing huge French state guarantees for its credit arm in an effective rescue of the group.
BACK IN THE RACE?
PSA, which has made net losses of 7.2 billion euros (R104 billion) in the last two years, titled its programme "Back in the Race" and emphasised ambitions to grow in China and South-East Asia.
PSA said it was aiming for the car division to generate an operating margin of 2.0 percent by 2018 and then 5.0 percent under the next medium-term plan for the years 2019 to 2023.
To achieve the targets, the group said it would focus on boosting its Peugeot and Citroen brands, and develop the upmarket Citroen DS brand cars so that they no longer competed with other models by the group, and to obtain higher prices for its vehicles.
To do this the group would concentrate on 26 models (down from today’s 45) by 2020 to offer a broader range, higher profitability and target lucrative market segments.
AFP