Ex-Volkswagen works council chief Bernd Osterloh loses board post

Traton Head of Human Resources Osterloh

Dusseldorf, Berlin The truck manufacturer Traton is significantly reorganizing the board of directors. CFO Annette Danielski and Human Resources Director Bernd Osterloh are to leave their post before the end of their contract term, the Handelsblatt learned from corporate circles. Before moving to the management of Traton, Osterloh was head of the works council at the parent company Volkswagen for many years, making him one of the best-known trade unionists in the country. The truck manufacturer wants to announce the conversion later in the day.

The Danielski and Osterloh departments are to be merged under the leadership of Michael Jackstein as soon as possible. Jackstein is currently head of the office of VW supervisory board chairman Hans Dieter Pötsch and is considered his right-hand man. With the bundling of finances and personnel, Jackstein is given double power at Traton.

In addition to Jackstein, Scania manager Catharina Modahl Nilsson, who will become CTO, will join the board. The size of the Management Board remains unchanged with six members. The company initially declined to comment.

Traton board of directors Osterloh: Out after two years

Bernd Osterloh is losing his top position as Traton HR manager after less than two years. In May 2021, the 66-year-old moved from the general works council to the Traton board. The personnel was considered controversial at the time, also because Osterloh, in his function as the top employee representative, was considered a tough opponent of top management in Wolfsburg.

In terms of salary, however, the change should have been worthwhile for the former head of the works council. According to the 2022 annual report, Osterloh earned 1.656 million euros at Traton – including pension expenses. According to Handelsblatt information, Osterloh’s contract with Traton will continue until mid-2024.

Extended group management to merge Traton brands

Traton has been managed by Scania boss Christian Levin since 2021. The Traton supervisory board wants to extend its contract, as the Handelsblatt learned. Tensions had recently arisen between Levin and Osterloh, as Levin increasingly wanted to locate parts of the company in Sweden. Traton was created through the merger of MAN, Scania and VW Latin America; later the US manufacturer Navistar was added.

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Under Levin, the brands of the truck group are to be brought together more closely. So far, this has only worked to a limited extent. An extended group management should help with the integration in the future – consisting of the MAN procurement manager and former VW board member Murat Aksel, the Scania development manager Anders Williamsson and Navistar production manager Stefan Palmgren. You’re supposed to be helping Levin.

Scania is still the clear number one in the group structure. In 2022, the operating adjusted return on the Swedes was 8.6 percent. For comparison: MAN’s margin recently reached just 1.2 percent and thus even less than in the previous year. In the spring of 2022, the Munich-based bus and truck manufacturer suffered severely from a lack of wiring harnesses, which until then had only been produced in Ukraine. Production is now up and running again there.

Traton boss Levin

Must combine the truck brands MAN, Scania and Navistar for Volkswagen.

Nevertheless, Traton is far from its ambitious goals. By 2024, the brands in the group should generate a nine percent margin (currently 5.1 percent).

Traton presented positive annual figures at the beginning of March. In 2022, thanks to the takeover of the US manufacturer Navistar and good business with maintenance and spare parts, sales rose by almost a third to a record value of 40.3 billion euros. Adjusted operating profit improved by 472 million euros to 2.1 billion euros in 2022, which was partly due to higher sales prices.

For the current year, the Volkswagen subsidiary predicted an increase in sales and turnover of five to 15 percent.

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