Jürgen Stackmann will replace James Muir at the head of Seat

We don’t usually mention executive-level moves, nor new CEOs or those being replaced at the brands, but in this case we’re going to make an exception, since the move is related to Seat. Because Germany has decided that Jürgen Stackmann will replace James Muir at the head of the Spanish brand.

This could give rise to many conjectures, none of them confirmed by Volkswagen, but it seems that the Germans are increasingly unhappy with Seat. Although the brand has recovered part of the losses incurred during 2011, with a better fiscal year in 2012, Seat has lost value as a brand by selling fewer units in 2012, and it still records losses of 11,500 million euros.

However, many of you will be asking why this surprise change in the direction of Seat is happening, when the Toledo and the new León have not yet had enough months on the market. Some analysts predict that Volkswagen will never make money from Seat and that it is a “redundant brand” within the VAG Group universe. If things are exactly as the German analysts believe, changing the CEO will not mean the picture changes much, but it could mean that Volkswagen is going to change its strategy, once again, with respect to the Spanish brand.

Since September 2012, Stackmann has headed the Marketing area of the VAG Group and of the Volkswagen brand, so some final decisions regarding certain models (Altea, Exeo) that will leave production or are about to do so are likely to be made, in addition to evaluating how the new Toledo is performing and keeping a close eye on the new León.

Via | Automotive News