MAN's strong recovery
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ME MAN group is expected to break even again by mid 1985 following its serious recent losses, DM300m (£77.5m) in 1982/83 and about half that amount expected for 1983/84.
Wilfried Lochte, president of the commercial vehicle division Df MAN told CM: "MAN's total losses will be reduced very fast."
The truck and bus division is 'the most important activity of the MAN group" according to Mr Lochte, employing about half the group's employees and with it seems a proportionate responsibility for losses. Other engineering activities of the MAN group include civil engineering, marine diesel engines, aerospace equipment, and printing machinery.
Mr Lochte said that the number of employees in the truck and bus division's four West German plants at Munich, Salzgitter, Brunswick and Penzberg had been reduced over the past four years from 21,500 to 16,500, at a redundancy cost of around DM 90m, and he thought no further redundancies would now be necessary.
By the end of MAN's current fiscal year, ending in June, Mr Lochte expects that his company will have supplied around 20,000 units, including heavy trucks, buses MAN-VW 6.9 tonnes and kits, compared with last year's total of 18,000. He forecasts that the next peak in the West European market for commercial vehicles will be reached in 1987 with a volume then of around 225,000.
Mr Lochte insists that collaboration with other manufacturers in the development of high-cost components such as engines and cabs is not essential for MAN though he is willing to discuss co-operative arrangements "which make sense from our point of view."
"I think it is important that we remain independent as far as and as long as possible," he said. He dismisses as "just a rumour" recent speculation that General Motors was interested in buying MAN's truck and bus division.