Belgium Entrepeneur behind Plans to Buy Holden

[Brazen]

Originally Posted by Express

This is not a company going out of business, it's a company changing tact.

Why on earth would GM or any company for that matter want to offer tooling to another party to allow them to go into competition with them.

If I was the CEO of a company that gave the competition a helping hand to supply my customer base with a product they may prefer, I’d expect to be out of work before my coffee has time to go cold.

Sell the premises, maybe.

Sell any intellectual rights or tooling so someone else can manufacturer a product to compete with you, no chance.



.

This is too political to be a simple business decision.

Imagine a public boycott of Holden cars if they refuse to sell the rights to a potential employer of thousands of Australians.

Imagine politicians lining up to bag the company after hundreds of millions have been spent by the taxpayer.

Imagine p!ssing off your biggest fleet customers (Australian government fleets) by not following good corporate citizen practise and seeking out some sort of remedy for a mass extinction of an industry.

I suspect it could be more complex than it first appears. GM could even be a customer and keep in ordering low volume Caprice police cars for the U.S. And SS for the Australian market.

[malazn mafia]

Originally Posted by MethodX

Would be great if it happened.... but fat chance.
Zeta platform is still good.... just a tad heavy... would need more lightweight materials.

How does Zeta stack up against Barra/Orion platform? Don't think Zeta can have awd or can have an SUV built from it, despite its billion dollar origins?

[Brazen]

Originally Posted by malazn mafia

How does Zeta stack up against Barra/Orion platform? Don't think Zeta can have awd or can have an SUV built from it, despite its billion dollar origins?

Nah Zeta can sustain a SUV and AWD, hence why it is so heavy. It was also used as the basis of the GMC Denali concept pickup truck a couple of years back.

[malazn mafia]

Originally Posted by Brazen

Nah Zeta can sustain a SUV and AWD, hence why it is so heavy. It was also used as the basis of the GMC Denali concept pickup truck a couple of years back.

So GM discarded a perfectly good platform in the name of American Pride. Noticed that the updated Camaro discarded the zeta platform altogether in favour of an American developed one...

[Express]

Originally Posted by Brazen

This is too political to be a simple business decision.

Imagine a public boycott of Holden cars if they refuse to sell the rights to a potential employer of thousands of Australians.

Imagine politicians lining up to bag the company after hundreds of millions have been spent by the taxpayer.

Imagine p!ssing off your biggest fleet customers (Australian government fleets) by not following good corporate citizen practise and seeking out some sort of remedy for a mass extinction of an industry.

I suspect it could be more complex than it first appears. GM could even be a customer and keep in ordering low volume Caprice police cars for the U.S. And SS for the Australian market.

If this issue so political it would be receiving saturation coverage in the mainstream media and it is not.

If you take a step away from those attached to the car industry and car enthusiasts you’ll find no-one is interested as its yesterday’s news.

I’ve mentioned to a number of friends I’ve ordered the last Commodore and the response has been either or I thought they stopped making them a couple of years ago.



So

I imagine the bulk of consumers as they did during the lead up to the announced closures won’t care and will continue to purchase on price and not loyalties and therefore all that unpurchased stock produced because of loyalties will mean a quick end to the business venture.

I imagine the politicians won’t want to use taxpayer funds to prop up a start-up company making a product that had already lost favour with the marketplace as they would need a much bigger proposal to get them on board than the one on offer.

I imagine Government Fleets have already moved on and they will fall into line with Federal Government policy.

I suspect the horse has bolted.



From a business point if a company was to offer their intellectual property to another company they would want substantial royalties on each item which would put a big strain on the new company's profit margin.

The Government would have to offer enormous taxpayer incentives to coax any company to give up something of such value and we all know governments don't control the corporate world it is in fact the other way round.

If anything comes of this it'll be because GM sees a profit in it and not because the government wants it and I don't believe GM would truly be interested.

I’ll be over the moon if I’m proven wrong as I’d love to be able to keep buying those V8 Commodores but I think there is a lot of wishful thinking going on.



.

[Struggo]

Originally Posted by csv8

Subscription only gives me the even my local paper now is by subscription!!! $6 a week!!!! The only day its worth buying is saturday!!! Paywall has failed around the world and newspaper are taking them down...

Me too, I got lucky going incognito

Holden plant for hire as plan to revive carmaking gears up
THE AUSTRALIANNOVEMBER 28, 2015 12:00AM

Holden has declared itself “very open” to the prospect of its main automotive plant being used by other companies in a push to *revive the car industry.

The company said yesterday it was prepared to consider proposals to “repurpose” the site at Elizabeth in Adelaide’s north when it closes it.

“It is the company’s hope that the site could continue to be used in a productive and beneficial manner in South Australia after the cessation of Holden manufacturing,” the company told The Weekend Australian.

The statement comes as independent South Australian senator Nick Xenophon is launching a campaign to save the embattled car industry. In recent weeks he has met representatives from three companies who want to invest in the automotive industry.

Senator Xenophon has met with Australian companies Ethan Automotive and Red Automotive Technologies, and Belgian company Punch Group.

“This is something that needs bipartisan support,” he said. “It’s a long shot, but if we walk away from this sector it will scar our manufacturing prospects forever.

“It’s very important that industry and the federal government do not put up the white flag just because General Motors, Ford and Toyota are planning to exit.

“The next six months will be critical: once we’ve lost car manufacturing in Australia, it is gone.

“With a low Australian dollar there is real optimism — it will be a minor miracle but it is not out of the question.”

Ford will cease making cars in Australia next year and Holden and Toyota in 2017.

Asked if the federal government should ask Holden to allow its Elizabeth plant to be used by other companies, Senator Xenophon said: “Yes, I think the government should have a constructive role. Ultimately, the best-case scenario is for a commercial arrangement to be entered into between existing plants and any prospective carmakers.”

The chief operating officer of Ethan Automotive, Matthew Newey, said while it would be both “symbolic and opportune” to revitalise the Holden plant, “unfortunately it is not a possibility”.

“This facility was specifically designed to support the high-volume* manufacturing that we all remember so fondly,” he said.

“Today Australian consumers have around 67 different models to choose from — that’s more than either the UK or the US — with no model selling more than 30,000 units per year.

“Success in this market requires* an agile low-volume facil*ity and an entirely new manufact*uring infrastructure.”

Mr Newey said he believed it was possible for cars to be made profitably in Australia without government subsidy. He said the recovery of the British auto industry offered an example of the potentia*l of developing a “powerful partnership” with government but not relying on subsidies.

The Punch Group took over a redundant Holden plant in Strasbourg and began making gearboxes. It now sells those gearboxes to companies including Holden, Audi and BMW.

The motoring.com.au website reported yesterday that the owner of the Punch Group, Guido Dumarey*, was in Canberra last week as part of his effort to buy Holden’s Elizabeth plant. It said that, under Tony Abbott, the government had shown little interest in any such plan, but under Malcolm Turnbull “and a more pro-industry group of ministers” the Punch Group might get a more sympathetic hearing.

The website said that after a five-year negotiation Mr Dum*arey had bought from GM its ailing Strasbourg automatic transmission plant in January 2013, invested at least €220 million into it, and had turned it into a highly successfu*l operation.

[Eaturbo]

Yeah a global manufacturer couldnt make money with global buying power and global contacts. Yep it sounds like a good idea to me. What could go wrong.

[pottery beige]

shut it down and slam the door

place is pretty much full of protected retates filled with nfi of reality entitle me clowns

[bangm001]

Or all re-apply for their jobs which i suspect would be the case given it would then be privately owned..

[malazn mafia]

Originally Posted by pottery beige

shut it down and slam the door

place is pretty much full of protected retates filled with nfi of reality entitle me clowns

No doubts there. The workmanship of Holdens has been average at best, but has come a long way in the last 3 years. Remember having the misfortune of being given a VE omega rental in 2011, had 6000km on the clock and felt more like it had 600,000. Creaking rattling dash, creaking parcel shelf, performance of a Camry 2.4, noise of 3 rattling marble cans emanating ng from what supposedly should be an engine, and an indecisive clunky auto gearbox. Looks like they laid off a large portion of those nfi retarts , and left the average to good workers in their positions.

[1TUFFUTE]

Originally Posted by Eaturbo

Yeah a global manufacturer couldnt make money with global buying power and global contacts. Yep it sounds like a good idea to me. What could go wrong.

That's all I keep thinking.....back to basics and the basics don't add up.

All the ducks don't just leave the pond Cus it's dirty.......(no idea wat that means)

[701let]

Originally Posted by 1TUFFUTE

Pretty sure Ford didn't learn anything.... they just saved a billion dollars.....plus another billion of ours

I think you're right. What an inspired business plan they have...

[danzvtil]

Of course Holden are "very open" to "repurposing" the Elizabeth plant, they are about to become landlord, whether a paying tenant wants to make cars or tie together the ends of charm bracelets is of no consequence to them.
This Belgian guy is delusional, GM wont sell the zeta architecture to him for use in a first world country, that crap only happens in 3rd world countries where using decades old car designs is still accepted.

[Moby Vic]

(Sorry, just making a joke about Belgians--nothing to do with the topic.)

[FormulaFG]

Well at least there has been some official discussion about it...

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-2...g-cars/7103566

[Fordman1]

Won't happen.

Australia won't / can't build cars after 2017.

[Express]

Originally Posted by FormulaFG

Well at least there has been some official discussion about it...

There would have to be.

Could you imagine the backlash for any Government that didn’t even take the time to listen to such a proposal and offer in principal support?

I still can’t see it happening and if it did I also can’t believe it would succeed as it’s not Holden, it’s not Australian owned and it’s reworking a platform that for some time has been dwindling into a niche market for V8 fans.

It makes you wonder what the business model says about its potential customer base.

[goo33]

This will never happen.

This is the sort of nonsense that gets disseminated to the public to quell their fears: like their apprehension about losing the Elizabeth plant.

Once the critical mass of vehicle manufacturing sub-industries collapses, then it will be over for all time.

Cheap cars now built by the cheapest asian and indian labour.

That is the endgame.

[Sprintey]

Thought I'd give this one a bump, with this news:

http://www.carpoint.com.au/news/2016...the-key-101137

[goo33]

Originally Posted by Express

This is not a company going out of business, it's a company changing tact.

Why on earth would GM or any company for that matter want to offer tooling to another party to allow them to go into competition with them.

.

In 1989, Ford Norlane brought in Japanese engineers to teach dumb-**** mullets how to operate CNC equipment.

The tooling was all from a Mazda Plant in Japan.

Japanese engineers and Japanese tooling in the Norlane plant.

Ford eventually gave up trying to make a silk purse out of a pigs ear.

[csv8]

http://www.motoring.com.au/dumarey-b...oldens-101154/