On July 1, the manager will take over the sales department on the Board of Management of the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand.
(Photo: Volkswagen Group)
Dusseldorf Women in top management have long been part of everyday life in the VW Group. The executive boards of Audi, Porsche, Traton, commercial vehicles and the entire group are no longer purely male domains. One exception, however, is the management of the core Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand.
That is set to change on July 1st. As Volkswagen announced on Tuesday, Imelda Labbé will then take over the sales and marketing department for the core brand. The 54-year-old succeeds Klaus Zellmer, who is also moving to the Czech group brand Skoda as the new CEO on July 1.
The fact that there is not a single woman on the board of the VW core brand was recently considered a shortcoming in Wolfsburg. It has therefore already become apparent in the past few weeks that male candidates will not have good prospects for the sales position this time. Imelda Labbé, on the other hand, was one of the closest favorites early on. “She clearly has the most experience,” says a VW executive.
The trained business economist has made a name for herself at Volkswagen primarily as an expert in the spare parts business (after sales). At the moment, Labbé is still managing the VW original parts logistics with around 2,500 employees. The dealers of the brands VW, Audi, Skoda and Seat are supplied with spare parts from Kassel.
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The manager has been working in the automotive industry for more than 35 years. From 1986 to 2013, she held management positions at Opel and the then parent company General Motors – including as head of quality at the Antwerp plant and head of sales for the German market. In 2013 she moved to the Volkswagen Group as spokeswoman for the management of Skoda Germany. In the summer of 2016, she took over the global management of After Sales.
Conflicts with VW dealers are programmed
As the future head of sales, she will have to heavily digitize the sale of new and used cars. All car manufacturers – not just Volkswagen – want to use new online business models to increase sales. Conflicts with the existing medium-sized dealership are thus programmed.
“Your task will be to consistently align the sales, marketing and service of the Volkswagen brand to the needs of our customers in times of digitization,” said Thomas Schäfer, future CEO of the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand, about Labbé. Car buyers increasingly wanted to buy vehicles online.
>> Read here: How Volkswagen is catching up with digitization
So far, new cars have been sold almost exclusively through independent dealers. A few days ago, Volkswagen began selling new cars to private customers over the Internet for the first time. Imelda Labbé is to significantly increase this online sales in the coming years.
Electric cars are less prone to repairs than classic combustion models. New driver assistance systems and, in a few years, autonomous driving will ensure that the number of accidents will decrease. This reduces the need for spare parts, so Volkswagen is looking for new sources of income. This also includes our own online sales.
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