VW is shaking up Seat’s leadership to boost sales

Josef Schelchshorn has been appointed by Volkswagen to lead human resources at Seat starting September 1, its Spanish subsidiary. Seat has had financial losses and to stop this trend, VW intends to restructure its leadership to increase sales.

Schelchshorn will be the fourth new member to join the seven-position Seat board since September 2009. Schelchshorn replaces Ramon Paredes Sanchez-Collado, who will serve as the executive committee member tasked to handle Seat and Volkswagen Group’s government relations in Spain. Seat has lost the most money for VW Group as opposed to the other divisions. Seat posted a first-quarter operating loss of 110 million euros ($142 million), which is a far cry from the operating losses at VW’s two other losing units, Bentley (-36 million euros) and commercial vehicles (-16 million euros). Last May, Seat CEO James Muir had discussed its current plan for the carmaker. He said that this is the “last attempt for Seat as a brand.” He was quoted to have said, “If one would want to get rid of Seat, one would have to give the other party money to take it.” Muir was chosen last September to lead Seat. Muir, formerly Mazda Motor Corp.’s European head, replaced Erich Schmitt, who spent three years trying to turn around Seat but failed.