FAW-VW restructuring sales, staff

FAW-Volkswagen Automotive Co is subdividing sales areas and restructuring the company's higher management staff, according to Monday reports, in a move analysts said could prevent highly centralized power and corruption but may have a negative impact on future sales volumes.

After the subdivision, the company will have six sales areas, compared with the previous four, with each area adding a new position called service director - on a par with marketing or sales director - in order to fulfill a sales goal of 1.8 million vehicles in 2015, said FAW, as quoted by domestic news portal tencent.com Monday.

Data from the company's website indicated that they sold 1.37 million vehicles in 2012, a 37 percent year-on-year growth, and the amount was expected to reach 1.5 million in 2013.

As the restructuring unfolds, almost all current directors will undergo big adjustments, said the report.

Calls to FAW's public relation department remained unanswered by press time.

The company has been performing well and the subdivision will benefit development, but the executive restructuring may keep FAW from reaching its sales goal for 2013 unless all six sales areas follow a unified management model, Fu Zhiyong, an industry analyst, told the Global Times Monday.

The plan for subdivision was proposed around the end of 2011 and the reshuffling of senior executives has already begun, so it will not have too much influence on the company's sales goals, a former FAW executive told the Global Times, speaking anonymously.

Fu speculated that FAW's personnel changes are likely part of a chain reaction set off by the government's June 2012 disciplinary inspections of Jing Guosong, the former deputy general manager of the company's sales division, who was suspected of corruption.