Opel Takes Steps To Close Bochum

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

GM’s Opel will cease building cars at its German Opel plant. After 2016, no complete cars will roll off the lines at the 50 year old plant. Opel will keep a logistics hub in Bochum. The plant will continue making yet undefined components, Opel’s interim boss Thomas Sedran told German media today.

The decision will cost around 3,000 jobs.

Works council chief Rainer Einenkel does not accept the decision: “We will continue making cars in Bochum after 2016, he told DPA.

According to Reuters, the decision means that Opel “came a major step nearer closing its Bochum plant.”

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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 7 comments
  • Gentle Ted Gentle Ted on Dec 10, 2012

    Just wondering what the Union in Germany thinks of this?

  • Oelmotor Oelmotor on Dec 10, 2012

    GM´s had the potential to sell a "Made in Germany" product and they botched it up. It appears this decade will be worse than the last two.

    • See 1 previous
    • Ranwhenparked Ranwhenparked on Dec 10, 2012

      "Made in Germany" is really only a selling point to patriotic buyers in Germany, the only thing buyers in other markets care about is the pedigree of the badge - the car it's attached to can be built just about anywhere. Take a look at the Mercedes C-Class - built in 8 countries (most of them in the developing world) or the BMW 3-Series, also built in 8 mostly developing countries. Both are still seen as suitably "German" everywhere they're sold, and buyers don't really care whether they're coming from 6th of October City or Chennai or Sindelfingen. A car in the Regal's price range was never going to be viable long-term getting built in Germany and shipped across the Atlantic for sale, and nobody really cares how "German" a Buick is anyway.

  • Buickman Buickman on Dec 10, 2012

    Buick City built the best selling, highest quality full size car in America and Jack Smith closed it. capital has no loyalty to labor, none.

    • See 1 previous
    • Rnc Rnc on Dec 11, 2012

      Its a fasinating collection of reading (start with "On a Clear Day..., next "Roger and Me" and finally "Irreconcilable Differences") on how the sloan management system was destroyed (Roger Smith being the final nail in its coffin, with a truck load of Acme dynamite waiting). Those three books will get you through the Donner Revolt (when finance took-over for good), the Sloan system was supposed to always have a Manufacturing person in charge with a finance guy as number 2. Giving Smith 10 years of free reign (except for Perot, that's "Irreconcilable Differences"), the Sloan system was designed so that no CEO would be in that position for more than 2 years (that way nothing really ever changed and any damage the previous CEO had done could be quickly undone). And finally the moving of executive management from NYC to Detroit, A major part of the sloan system was that executives were supposed to be based in NYC so they would be in tune with the nation, not secluded in thier own dream world (detroit). The Sloan system had lots and lots of issues, but it worked (In some ways like a coke/gambling addict stumbling ass backwards from powerball win to powerball win) to the point that GM had a self imposed 50% NA marketshare, they could have destroyed the others whenever they wanted too, but didn't want to brush up against anti-trust (they also had 40% in Western Europe). Its abandonment saw a company go from 50% to 17% marketshare in less than 25 years, really a management feat.

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