Renault expands with sites in Romania and Nordic region

Renault’s burgeoning international operations have taken two major steps forward recently with the creation of two new organisations: Renault Technologies Romania (RTR) and Renault Nordic, with a combined investment of €110m and the creation of up to 1,600 new jobs.

As part of the plans, Renault has just opened a new engineering and design centre in Bucharest, marking the first element in the establishment of its new regional organisation in Romania, Renault Technologies Romania (RTR). A little further north, it will also take control of operations in Northern Europe with the creation of a new organisation, Renault Nordic, to manage its activities in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, via a central hub in Stockholm.

Renault Technologies Romania (RTR)

Renault plans to invest around €100 million over the next two years in RTR, a regional centre developing vehicles and powertrains to be made at regional plants or sold in Central and Eastern Europe, Turkey, Russia and North Africa. Adding up to 1,600 new jobs to the current workforce of 1,400, RTR will employ 3,000 people by the end of 2009.

RTR, along with other regional engineering centres in Brazil and Korea, will be supporting Renault’s ambitious international development programme, under which 26 new models are to be released by 2009.

Renault Technologies Romania operates under the Renault Engineering global function, whose development workload extends to eight new models per year, as a key feature of the Renault Commitment 2009 plan.

Renault Engineering is a worldwide function with two main components: a central engineering department plus regional engineering centres covering Renault’s strategic markets. This organisation implements standardised engineering processes worldwide, with common technical standards, precisely defined key functions and harmonised technical policies.

The central engineering department has two main missions:

Corporate
R&D
Pre-projects
Corporate technical functions
Resources strategy
Development of vehicles intended for Western Europe

It steers and administers Renault Engineering, provides coordination and support for the regional engineering centres, and oversees the quality of all Renault engineering functions.

The regional engineering centres (in Romania, Brazil and Korea) have the following missions:

Development of powertrain and vehicle projects (passenger cars and LCVs) for regional markets
Technical support for regional production plants
Support for local parts purchasing in cost-competitive countries, for local and
international production

With high-growth automotive markets shifting outside Western Europe, competitive performance calls for closer contact with local customers. Regional engineering teams will have a better understanding of customer needs and vehicle usage conditions in each market, as well as being better able to involve local suppliers directly from the product design phase onwards.

Renault Technologies Romania (RTR) will mainly accommodate engineering functions (design and testing), along with purchasing, design and support functions (management, human resources, IT). RTR will handle development of powertrain and vehicle projects (passenger cars and LCVs) to be made at regional production plants or sold in Euromed regional markets. This includes vehicles based on the Logan platform. RTR is currently working with Renault’s Western European engineering team on a number of vehicle projects and will eventually become the engineering hub for all vehicles developed on the Logan platform.

Renault Technologies Romania will be split across three sites:
Bucharest: design offices (workforce: 1900)
Pitesti: engineering services at body assembly and powertrain plants
(workforce: 500)
Test centre (test tracks, test benches, etc.), scheduled for start-up in the second half of 2009 (workforce: 500)

For Renault Technologies Romania, Renault plans to create 1,600 jobs in vehicle engineering, powertrain engineering and support functions. It will be recruiting mainly engineers, along with young graduates in various disciplines and other people with relevant experience, with the aim of employing around 3,000 people.

Romania is an ideal choice for Renault’s new regional engineering centre for two reasons. Firstly, it enjoys a central location in the high-growth Euromed region (Eastern Europe, Russia, North Africa, Turkey, etc.), a strategic market for Renault. Secondly, Renault group leads the Romanian market with its Dacia brand and also has a solid base there in the form of its efficient production facility at Pitesti, with body assembly plant, powertrain plant and logistics platform.

In Romania, the Renault group has stimulated development of a fast expanding network of suppliers, while in return, the country offers Renault a qualified workforce with a good level of university education and sound partnerships with national authorities and institutes.

Renault invests for growth in the Nordic market
Renault will establish its own subsidiary for the distribution of its vehicles and spare parts and the provision of after sales services in the Nordic market (Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark) from January 1, 2008.

Investing €10 million in the creation of Renault Nordic, the company will launch an unprecedented product offensive across these markets and employ a total of 165 people, of which 100 will be located at the head office in Stockholm.

In the context of Renault Commitment 2009, Renault will launch 25 new models under the Renault and Dacia brands in these markets. Thirteen of these models will be launched in 2008. This unique product range, adapted specifically to the demands of extremely cold climates, will be completed by a new ecologically-friendly product: Mégane E85.

The new subsidiary, Renault Nordic, will be structured around a regional hub based in Stockholm, Sweden, with local branches located in Copenhagen, Helsinki and Oslo. The head office in Stockholm will manage support functions and operational entities in all four countries, in order to satisfy its customers there. Renault will use the highly professional and strong existing dealer network, providing extensive geographical coverage in all four markets and allowing customers to visit the same points of sale as they do today.

Alain Margaritopol, Managing Director, Renault Nordic commented: “The ambitions of Renault Commitment 2009 announced in February 2006 require that we review our distribution policy in a number of key markets, for greater service quality for our customers and greater growth for our brands. We count on being able to give stronger support to the network and allowing dealers to be more aggressive in their marketing. In addition to an expanded and renewed product line, Renault dealers will see the introduction of the new Logan model.”

Renault’s three key commitments in the areas of quality, profitability and growth to be met by 2009 entail an increase in annual sales volumes worldwide by 800,000 vehicles compared to 2005 levels. Europe is important to this target and a number of markets have been identified where Renault’s brand potential is under exploited.

“The Nordic zone is one of these key markets,” continued Alain Margaritopol. ”Renault’s goal is to increase our combined car & LCV market share in the Nordic markets from 4.0% in 2006 to 7% by 2013. This region is clearly one which we are targeting for growth in the coming years.”