Luca de meo, the last hope for Renault. So headlines an editorial in Le Monde, recalling that today, July 1st, the era of the Italian manager at the head of the troubled French car manufacturer officially begins. De Meo's debut is eagerly awaited beyond the Alps: the press, not only the authoritative Le Monde, is dedicating all the necessary honors to him, after his convincing 8-minute speech at the last Renault assembly, last 19 June. “A successful debut”, claims Le Monde, which he defines the charming Milanese manager with fluent French, albeit with a veil of Italian accent. De Meo has more than 25 years of experience in the automotive industry: for him, Renault is a return to his origins, given that it all began right there, before moving on to Toyota Europe and subsequently to Fiat, where he held the position as Head of Business for Lancia, Fiat and Alfa Romeo.
Then the manager born in 67, a Bocconi graduate, was also CEO of Abarth and again Chief Marketing Officer of the Fiat group, before landing at Volkswagen and becoming chairman of the subsidiary Seat, a position he has held over the past five years, contributing to relaunch the former Spanish house. A successful globetrotter, fresh from decades of apprenticeship and to which Renault now entrusts a difficult task: to get out of a crisis that had already begun before the coronavirus, after the turbulent farewell of the former CEO Carlo Ghosn, arrested in 2018 and still at the center of an international spy story. Already in 2019, in fact, the historic transalpine car manufacturer had recorded its first negative balance after 10 consecutive years of profit: -141 million euros.
Now the Covid, which has forced to a austerity plan ever seen: indeed Renault will benefit from aid for as much as 5 billion euros from the French state, but at the same time it had to revolutionize the strategies for the next two years, establishing a reduction in operating costs of 2 billion. This means that Renault will cut 2022 jobs between now and 15.000. As far as possible, he will avoid doing so in French territory, where no factories will be closed but where in any case the strict diet will lead to a decrease in the workforce by 4.600 units. Less volumes, more productivity: this is the new mantra, already announced by outgoing president Jean-Dominique Senard before leaving the "hot potato" to De Meo.
"After investing too much, let's go back to the fundamentals", said the French manager a month ago, communicating to the press and the markets that production between 2019 and 2024 will be reduced by 18%, but that each employee will produce 14% more vehicles over the course of the year (in 2022 it will be 91 per employee). The annual production capacity will therefore increase from 5,5 million vehicles in 2019 to 4 million. A necessary choice to adapt to the new post-Covid paradigms, which foresee very hard times for the automotive market, all over the world. Furthermore, in the specific case of Renault, as Le Monde does not fail to remind, De Meo will also have to live with an "unhealthy environment", deteriorated by the Ghosn case and by the tensions with the Japanese of Nissan, partner of the Alliance with Renault and Mitsubishi.
"His profile will have the effect of a vaccine", the transalpine newspaper claims, acknowledging the Italian manager to have the right skills and experience to turn Renault's fortunes around, a house founded in the XNUMXth century and several times, even recently, very close to becoming a partner of Fiat.
