DPCA halves 2019 sales target over the previous year

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen Automobile Company LTD (DPCA) set an annual sales target of 235,000 vehicles for 2019, even less than half of 476,000-unit sales goal for 2018, the automaker announced recently at a business management meeting.

According to published sales data, DPCA saw its annual sales in 2018 hit a new low of 253,400 units since 2009, a year-on-year slump of 32.89%, while also plunging 64% compared with the peak level of 704,000 units in 2015. The slash on 2019 sales target is designed to inspire the team's morale to revive the sales performance this year, according to some insiders from the automaker.

Amid the sales downturn, DPCA also experienced a constant unrest in personnel structure. On December 14, 2018, the company announced a sweeping personnel reshuffle, involving Su Weibin, DPCA's general manager, who would be removed from his current position.

Meanwhile, the management structure had been somewhat changed as well. The automaker got two positions of business deputy general manager off the executive committee and the marketing headquarters would no longer exist. What's more, directors of Dongfeng Citroen and Dongfeng Peugeot would head the executive committee and directly report to new general manager.

Massimo Roserba, current general manager of DPCA, and Li Jun, the company's executive vice president, stated at the meeting that the carmaker will deepen the marketing innovation to break the bottleneck in sales modes and reduce costs across whole value chain in 2019. In addition, in order to improve cash flow, alleviate the operational burden and get the quality reputation better, the company is going to decrease the vehicle inventory and solve the key quality issues.

In spite of the to-the-point work planning, DPCA didn't win a good outset for 2019. According to the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA), its wholesale volume in January was around 12,300 units, tumbling 63.1% year on year.