Nikolay Merkushkin and Nicolas Maure are sure that AvtoVAZ has excellent prospects
16.04.2016 Source: www.vkonline.ru Author: Dmitriy Bykov
On Friday, April 15, the governor of the Samara region Nikolay Merkushin held the first working meeting with the new president of JSC "AvtoVAZ" Nicolas Maure. The new head of the auto giant took office on the 4th of April.
The meeting was attended by Sergei Bezrukov, Deputy Chairman of the Government of Samara region - Minister of Industry and Technology and Eduard Vaino, Vice-president of OJSC "AvtoVAZ" for External Relations and Government Relations.
Participants discussed the production and social enterprise issues. Nicolas Maure described the current situation at AvtoVAZ, marked bottlenecks and announced the future plans.
"Today we discussed practically the entire range of issues, problems, which are at AvtoVAZ, - Nikolay Merkushin summed up the working meeting -. Including preparation for the anniversary of the first car’s release and the joint support of the Lada hockey club. "We also discussed how to develop technical direction, engineering center, technical center of enterprise. Nicolas Maure created a very powerful center in Romania, which have been developed market successfully products (Nicolas Maure was a President - General Director of the company automobile Dacia SA, the manufacturer of one of the fastest growing automotive brands in Europe and the largest private company of Romania -. Note Volga News) He has a desire to do the same in Togliatti, we agree with Mr. Maure’s approach. This is the key idea that we do not lost competence and building up them for region, for Togliatti, for AvtoVAZ." The governor also noted the professional and personal qualities of the AvtoVAZ’s new president. He noticed that Nicolas Maure perfectly characterizes the Russian proverb "Measure seven times, once - cut off."
"He is more calm by nature. Hopefully, the plant will move forward and become a leader in the Russian market with the AvtoVAZ new president of Nicolas Maure, who has huge experience. In Romania, his company was the absolute leader, the plant holds 34% of the market. The same aim is tasked here. To reach 34% is great (and definitely 34% is a good aim), but the task for new top-managers is to be a leader on the Russian market ", - the head of the region said.
Nicolas Maure, in his turn, expressed his admiration for Russia, its people and AvtoVAZ. "Obviously, this is the biggest automobile production in the world, there are tremendous production capacities and a lot of applied know-how. This is true for both production and engineering. And all three shareholders are taking a serious commitment, in order to maintain the company in good shape. And we hope that we will achieve even greater market share in the nearest future. Over the past two weeks in Togliatti I met so many people both at work and outside of it. I'm impressed with the capabilities that exist among Russian experts and convinced that if we run the company as a team, in the future we will succeed, "- Nicolas Maure said.
He also noted:" For us it is important to build partnerships with suppliers, dealers and representatives of regional authorities". In this case, Maure emphasized that AvtoVAZ shareholders have made a serious commitment to "maintain the company in a good shape."
"We hope that we will achieve a large market share in the nearest future", - Maure summed up. He added that this will contribute, including products that launched recently. According to Maure, good results, which show trends - Lada Vesta and Lada Xray, - "a signal that the Lada brand has great opportunities."
"Now Vesta occupies the 4th place in the market, Xray took the 23rd place in the top 25 best-selling cars in the market for the last month. A top priority for us is to get sufficient share of the Russian market and promote the export realization, - Maure noted. -It is necessary to promote the export with the existing range and such new products as Lada Vesta and Lada Xray. Of course, the current financial conditions are not too good, but I really believe that the situation will be better in the next 2-3 years. We have to work hard so as to restore its success in the market."
Nicolas Maure added that he is familiar with the cars produced in Togliatti for many years. "I’ve known the Lada brand since my adolescence – these were pretty good cars imported in large quantities in France and I remember helping a friend to maintain Lada."
In his turn, Nikolay Merkushkin told Maure that his first car was the sixth model of VAZ. "But I did not almost repaired, - the governor said. - Only several times I had to change tires because of the roads are not very good. It was very good for a time machine."
During the meeting, the governor told the president of AvtoVAZ about the prospects of building a high-speed route Samara-Togliatti with a stop at the Kurumoch airport. Road interchanges will help with the modern "сommunications between Tolyatti and Samara".
Nikolay Merkushin thus emphasized that now in Samara region it is paid a very close attention to the quality of roads: "The problem of roads is partially linked with the vast territory of our country. But they are getting better every year."
During the phased reconstruction the speed limit on the highway is expected to reach up to 160 km / h, and you can get within 1 hour from Samara to Togliatti instead of one and a half hour nowadays. Also, there will be organized the railway connection between Samara, Togliatti and the airport.
When they talked about Kurumoch airport, Nicolas Maure expressed his admiration for the new airport terminal: "I was in Togliatti two times (in 2008 and 2013), flew to the old airport. I should recognize that you have built a very good terminal. Congratulations! This is an excellent investments and the road from the airport to Togliatti became much better. "
As for his new job, the president of AvtoVAZ admitted that two weeks from the date of taking office "were the longest in my life." He also told to Nikolay Merkushin about his family, which, according to him, will soon move in Togliatti.