New car registrations fell sharply across Europe last month, although Lancia once again proved to be Fiat Auto's star performer, up more than 10 pct year on year.

At the same time as this news was being digested, Fiat Auto boss Sergio Marchionne was conducting a mild reshuffle of his top management pack, confirming his role, while reducing the team slightly and reassigning some responsibilities.

LANCIA'S RECOVERY CONTINUES AS IT RIDES OUT THE FALLING EUROPEAN TREND

The outlook across Europe last month was bleak with almost all car makers registering falls, only BMW and Kia bucking the steadily downwards trend. The Fiat Auto Division, as a whole, registered 101,843 new vehicles in March, down 16.7 pct year-on-year.

With a whole raft of new models due to come on stream later this year, including the new Fiat Punto and Croma, and Alfa 159 and Brera, it was not an unexpected result, as the first half of the year is very much a case of treading water for the Italian carmaker.

Breaking the data down, the Fiat brand registered 72,735 new vehicles last month (down 20.7 pct from 91,728 units in March 2004), and Alfa Romeo saw 15,080 new cars depart from the showrooms (down 15.1 pct, from 17,752 in March 2004). However it was the Lancia 'luxury' division though that once against raced ahead, up an excellent 10.5 pct year-on-year, with 13,541 new cars registered, as opposed to 12,254 last March. With the Ypsilon's popularity continuing unabated, the Musa 'mini mpv' is now starting to roll out across Europe with a healthy order book.

Fiat took a 6.2 pct share of the overall market, that comprises of the fifteen EU member nations plus the EFTA countries, down 1 pct year-on-year. Out of that 6.2 pct, the Fiat brand held on to 4.4 pct (down 1 pct), Alfa Romeo claimed 0.9 pct (down 0.1 pct) and Lancia took 0.8 pct (up 0.1 pct).

Further SENIOR management changes AT FIAT AUTO

Meanwhile last week Fiat Group CEO Sergio Marchionne made several changes to the senior management team of the Auto Division, the first alternations to be implemented since the current top structure was introduced last September.
 

While this six month old management structure was devised in conjunction with the then Auto Division boss Herbert Demel, Marchionne has now been able to put his stamp firmly onto the senior management team, and at the same time reconfirm his position as Auto Division CEO, a role he took on earlier this year, soon after the divorce from GM.

As expected, the senior management ranks have now been reduced slightly, from 28 to 23, as Marchionne continues to trim the structure, to cut out costs, and to make it more flexible and tightly focused.

While the changes were mostly a case of some minor fine tuning, and the confirmation of several appointees, the biggest surprise came with the news that engineering and design boss Harald J. Wester will now take responsibility for new product platforms.

The commercial managers for each of the brands remain the same, Luca De Meo at Fiat, Karl-Heinz Kalbfell at Alfa Romeo and Maserati, Antonio Baravalle at Lancia and Lorenzo Sistino retaining the LCV post. Simone Magliarino now takes over Communication and Industrial Relations though, Roberto Zuccato assumes responsibility for marketing at the new Alfa Romeo-Maserati division, while Pier Luigi Zanframundo replaces the departing Johan Wolfharter as Director of Fleet Management and Network Development.

Fiat Auto Senior Management: CEO and General Manager Sergio Marchionne; Brand & Commercial Fiat Luca De Meo; Brand & Commercial Alfa Romeo Karl-Heinz Kalbfell; Brand & Commercial Lancia Antonio Baravalle; Brand & Commercial LCV Lorenzo Sistino; After Sales Benito De Filippis; Engineering & Design Harald J. Wester; Fiat, Lancia, LCV Style Frank Stephenson; Manufacturing Antonio Bene; Supply Chain to be appointed; Fleet Management & Network Development Pier Luigi Zanframundo; Quality Stefan Ketter; Financial Services Alain Breuils; Purchasing Gianni Coda; Brand Promotion Lapo Elkann; Finance Diego Pistone; Human Resources Mario Mairano; Product Portfolio Management Giuseppe Bonollo; Business Development Alfredo Altavilla; Communication & Institutional Relations Simone Migliarino; Information & Communication Technology Vincenzo Giannelli; General Affairs Giorgio Fossati; Compliance Officer Gian Luca Forneron