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Stellantis and Benetton: different companies but same problems. New strategies in sight

The two companies are both grappling with market problems that they will address with reorganizations and resetting new strategies

Stellantis and Benetton: different companies but same problems. New strategies in sight

The summer break doesn't always bring relaxation. On the one hand stellantis, on the other Benetton, both are grappling with new strategies and resetswhich, elaborated during the summer heat, will see the light in the coming weeks: stellantis is concerned above all about the US market, the tensions with the unions and the production of electric cars, while thethe company from Ponzano Veneto, which has not had a positive balance since 2013, called Cristina Girelli, the top manager expert in impossible missions to try to recover, but the restructuring will inevitably involve the closure of many stores, even in Italy

Tavares and Elkann: summer meeting at Stellantis headquarters

Quite a headache at Stellantis. At the center of the concerns of stellantis at the moment there is America and in the last few days the CEO Carlos Tavares he flew to his headquarters, joined by the president John Elkann, to address what is considered the most complex moment since FCA merged with PSA into Stellantis in 2021. The group wants it review its strategy on the American market, after the half-yearly report certified that in that geographical area, which has always been the most profitable, Stellantis has accumulated too many stocks and it no longer sells as before (-18% in the first half of the year): the consequence was collapse in operating profit (-40%) and the stock market share (over -40% from the March highs).

The Franco-Italian-American car giant is also once again in the crosshairs of American union, who last week threatened the group to call a new national strike, after last year's. The 2023 protest ended with a new agreement on the collective agreement in the face of a series of commitments that Stellantis promised to take on. But which, according to the union, the group is not respecting. A national strike could paradoxically be convenient for Stellantis, as a stop in production could help reduce the stock of unsold cars, without penalizing sales. The strike threat is linked above all to the promise of an investment of 1,5 billion dollars to reopen the Belvidere plant in Illinois, converting it to the production of electric models. A promise that Stellantis, faced with the too slow growth of the battery-powered vehicle market, is taking back, delaying the investment.

Stellantis' electric in Mexico and Italy

However, Stellantis' commitment to electric remains, in Mexico and Italy. Just in recent days the company has started the production of electric vehicles at the Toluca plant in Mexico, where it has invested 1,6 billion dollars to make the electric Jeep Wagoneer S on the new Stla Large platform, a versatile architecture that also supports hybrid engines . Stellantis is also committed to electric vehicles in Italy, the only country in which two of the new Stla platforms have already been assigned, on which battery-powered models can also be made: the Large in Cassino and the Medium in Melfi. However, the group has backtracked on the conversion project of the Termoli plant, which should become the first Italian gigafactory. For the project, 369 million euros of public investment are involved through the Pnrr, funds on which the minister Adolfo Urso gave an ultimatum to Stellantis: without answers they will be moved to something else. Urso's ministry is about to officially summon the company to a table to obtain a definitive yes or no to the project by September 17th.

Benetton: Cristina Girelli arrives, the top manager expert in corporate crises

Restless waters also in Benetton house, where, after just six months on the job at the end of July, he resigned, according to what is known to MF, Iacopo Martini, the chief financial officer selected in February by Edizione after the previous one, Ugo Giorcelli, had left the group at the end of the last financial year which closed with yet another loss (230 million euros). AND' since 2013 what a Benetton does not close the balance sheet in profit, continuing to drain resources from the safe.

From 2 September he will arrive from the former Ilva Cristina Girelli, identified by Benetton's CEO Claudio Sforza (also ex Ilva) and from Henry Lakes, CEO of the parent company Edizione, for his profile specialized in business crises. Trained at the school of the extraordinary commissioner Enrico Bondi in Parmalat (where she was head of investor relations from 2004 to 2007), Girelli also worked at Alitalia (again in extraordinary administration, where she met Laghi) and at Ilva (in the finance part extraordinary). The new CFO will leave the steel giant after ten years.

The point of sale revolution

Sforza is creating his own front line which will have to support him in the difficult task of reviving Benetton Group. In December, Bain was enlisted to study a new relaunch plan, which put a series of proposals on Sforza's table, including that of a rationalization in several phases. Meanwhile, he was called as commercial director Paolo Venturini, manager with experience mainly in ICT (Wind, ItNet, Postel, Italiaonline), second MF. Venturini works for Era Group, one of the largest consultancy firms in the world specializing in cost management. It's about controlling expenses through the retailing network (especially indirect, through franchising stores) which the action of the new Ponzano management is currently focusing on.

At the end of June, letters also went out addressed to the large historical retailers owning multiple sales points (who in the past worked closely with the founder Luciano Benetton) for an orderly composition of the closing of shops structurally unproductive, cuts they will have occupational relapses on the territory. The impact on Italian network will be important (especially in the South, while corporate rationalizations have been underway for years abroad), but the closures should correspond to the closures – he reports MF - also reopenings in areas with greater potential. Together with the group's new positioning and a real e-commerce strategy, Sforza will present the new plan to the unions at the end of September. On August 29th, companies and acronyms will renew the one on voluntary exits.

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