CEO Oliver Blume announces further cost-cutting measures at the shareholders' meeting. By the end of the year 19,000 jobs are to be cut in a socially acceptable manner in the German AG. Despite the cuts, profits are falling and key cost blocks are rising.
Blume stated in the pre-released speech text that the previous business model of development in Germany, production in Europe and export to the world no longer works. The group is therefore planning with a production capacity of only nine million vehicles.
Under his predecessor Herbert Diess this figure stood at twelve million units. Blume and CFO Arno Antlitz are targeting a margin of eight to ten percent, a level Volkswagen has never achieved before.
In the circle of the Porsche-Piëch owner family nervousness is growing over whether Blume has the restructuring under control. The savings measures are considered extremely ambitious internally.
