Company Brief
New Delhi, July 10, 2009
The new General Motors Company began operations today with a new corporate structure, a stronger balance sheet, and a renewed commitment to make the customer the center of everything the new GM does. GM India will be an important part of the new company.
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“Today marks a new beginning for General Motors, one that will allow every employee to get back to the business of designing, building and selling great cars and trucks and serving the needs of our customers,” said Fritz Henderson, President and CEO. One thing we have learned from the last 100 days is that GM can move quickly and decisively,” said Henderson. Today, we take the intensity, the speed and the commitment of the past several months and transfer it from the triage of the bankruptcy process to the creation and operation of a new General Motors.
Created from the old GM’s strongest brands and operations the new GM is built on:
A fresh line-up of cars, trucks and crossovers, each with leading-edge designs and technologies that matter to both consumers and the environment,
A competitive cost structure, a cleaner balance sheet, and a stronger liquidity position that will enable GM to invest in new products, key technologies, and its future,
A strong global presence that includes GM’s operations in India and the Asia Pacific Region
A winning culture focused on customers and products.
To improve customer focus and speed, General Motors will end its regional operating structure, moving decisions closer to the customer. This eliminates the regional president positions and the regional strategy boards. Nick Reilly, currently GM Group Vice President and President, GM Asia Pacific, will be named Executive Vice President of GM International Operations (GMIO), which will be based in Shanghai, China. Additional details of the new structure and leadership moves will be communicated later this month.
GM’s subsidiaries outside the United States, including India and all of those in the Asia Pacific region have been acquired by the new company and will continue to operate normally without any interruption.
“GM will continue to remain aggressive in India in order to take advantage of opportunities as they arise,” said Mr. Karl Slym, President & Managing Director, General Motors India. “Our goal is to continue to provide the best cars to our customers across the country while taking advantage of the extensive global resources offered by the new General Motors Company.”
“We are committed to ensuring that our customers continue to receive a top-notch sales, service, spare parts and warranty coverage experience. Our dealers will also continue to receive all our carlines, while our suppliers will continue to work with us to supply parts and components for our cars, which we will continue to build at our state-of-the-art Talegaon and Halol facilities. We have no intention to modify our product, brand or other business plans including new product launches, the all new Chevrolet Cruze from our mother plant in Halol and an all new Chevrolet mini car from our new state of the art plant at Talegaon. We will remain aggressive in all areas of our business and continue to introduce new and exciting products that are best in class, in order to continue our growth in India. . Our product programs and other plans for the future remain on track, said Mr. Slym.
“In its 14 years of established operations in this country, GM India has invested over Rs.5000 crore to create a manufacturing capacity of 225,000 vehicles per annum. We are deeply committed to this market, our customers, suppliers, dealers and all other stakeholders to continue our rapid story of successful growth in India. Over 4000 people are directly employed by GM India at our manufacturing plants in Halol and Talegaon, our Engineering, R&D and Design Centre in Bangalore and our corporate office in Gurgaon. We are not going anywhere and we are here to stay for the long term,” added Mr. Slym.
It may be recalled that GM India has already announced the launch of three brand-new cars for this year. Of these, it has launched Chevrolet Captiva Automatic+ in January and its second offering of the year, the premium luxury Chevrolet Cruze sedan, will reach dealerships within the next few months. An all-new, segment-leading mini-car will also hit Indian roads towards the end of this year. In addition, the company has also launched the LPG version of Spark recently and CNG options in its current product line-up will be launched in the coming months.
General Motors India has two state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities at Halol in Gujarat and Talegaon in Maharashtra. General Motors India manufactures the Chevrolet Optra Magnum, Chevrolet Aveo, Chevrolet SRV, Chevrolet Aveo U-VA, Chevrolet Spark, Chevrolet Tavera and Chevrolet Captiva for the Indian market.
For further information, pelase contact:
R&PM:Edelman
Kanika Shriram
Tel: 0124 – 4131400498