At the Annual Shareholders' Meeting of Daimler AG (DDAIF.PK), its Chairman Dieter Zetsche affirmed the company's long-term strategy and goals.
Zetsche said that the company aims to sell at least 1.6 million Mercedes-Benz passenger cars each year as of 2015 and lead the way in the premium segment also in terms of unit sales by 2020.
Zetsche noted that the company is pursuing the specific targets of consolidating its leading role in the truck sector by selling more than 500,000 units in 2015 and over 700,000 units in 2020, and growing also in its other divisions.
In addition to the growth targets, the Group has corresponding profitability goals. In the medium term, it strives to achieve an average return on sales of 9 percent from its vehicle operations across all market and product cycles, with return targets for the individual divisions of 10% for Mercedes-Benz Cars, 8% for Daimler Trucks, 9% for Mercedes-Benz Vans and 6% for Daimler Buses. The target for Daimler Financial Services is a return on equity of 17%.
Zetsche emphasized, however: "We don't want to grow at any price. Our growth has to be sustainably profitable." To those ends, the growth strategies of the individual divisions have been supplemented with effective efficiency programs.
In the area of passenger cars, the Fit for Leadership efficiency program is an integral part of the Mercedes-Benz 2020 growth strategy. Similar programs are in place at the other divisions: Performance Vans 2013 at Mercedes-Benz Vans, Globe 2013 at Daimler Buses and DFS 2020 at Daimler Financial Services. In total, this is expected to improve the Group's cost position by 4 billion euros by the end of next year, Zetsche said.
Despite the difficult first quarter, Mercedes-Benz Cars assumes that with expansion of the total car market of 2 to 4 percent, its wholesale shipments will increase in full-year 2013.
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