MAN looks to ‘globalise' offerings

Trucksales.com.au has interviewed the CEO of MAN Truck & Bus AG, Anders Nielsen, who recently made a whistle-stop tour Down Under

The Chief Executive Officer of MAN Truck & Bus AG, Anders Nielsen (pictured), has visited Australia for the first time, as he and a number of other senior management executives flew in from Germany for a round of meetings with the recently appointed importer and distributor of MAN products in Australia and New Zealand, Penske Commercial Vehicles.

Trucksales.com.au spoke with Mr Nielsen – along with Penske Commercial Vehicles’ President, Randall Seymore, and Managing Director, Paul Glavac – in Brisbane, where the MAN Truck & Bus head outlined the firm’s progress to date and its prospects for the future.

While it’s fair to say MAN Truck & Bus has played a fairly subdued role in the Australian market in recent years – with 225 sales in the heavy-duty segment in 2013 it claimed a market share of 2.4 per cent – Nielsen says the brand is facing a bright future on the world stage, with a more globalised product offering and the prospect of closer cooperation with Swedish sibling Scania, of which parent company Volkswagen AG is also a majority owner.

“One of the issues in all our discussions, and which we also said in the annual press conference, is that we are very dependent on Europe,” said Mr Nielsen.

“We have two-thirds of our annual turnover in Europe. We see for the stability and the sustainability of our business that we need to be less dependent on Europe.”

Mr Nielsen said MAN Truck & Bus therefore had to diversify its market portfolio, while also giving its customers greater choice when it came to the specification of MAN products.

“Our purchasing performance is really getting a little bit more leverage now so we’re working on product cost optimisation – to bring in options in the vehicles that the customer can choose,” said Mr Nielsen.

“Today our specification [of MAN Truck & Bus products] is a little bit too high, so customers get these things whether they want them or not.”

Volkswagen AG’s latest offer for Scania would have associated benefits for the MAN brand, Mr Nielsen said.

Volkswagen is currently pursuing a Euro 6.7 billion takeover bid for Scania which, if successful, would free VW of legal restrictions put in place to protect minority shareholders. The initial bid was rejected by minority shareholders, while the business world is still awaiting word of the outcome of the latest round of negotiations, the deadline for which passed on April 25.

“The two companies will remain separate brands, separate competitors in the market, but of course it [if successful] will bring good opportunities for us to do joint development of some components, find research and development synergies, and purchasing synergies,” he said.

Mr Nielsen also outlined the firm’s plans to boost its operating profit from Euro 200 million to Euro 800 million annually, its outlook on the Australian and New Zealand markets, and the state of its operations in various emerging markets.

Check back with Trucksales.com.au shortly for the full interview with Mr Nielsen.

MAN looks to ‘globalise' offerings

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