Liu Weidong to Say Farewell after 8 years

　　After eight-year work, Liu Weidong, the General Manager of Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen Automobile (DPCA) and so-called Young Marshal, has become slightly fatter.

　　He was once "the youngest head of a joint venture automobile company" and won phased victory. Now he had to say farewell to DPCA-a company which he had made efforts for eight years, according to Sohu Auto. In 2009, the sales of DPCA rose a bit, which offered the final comfort for Liu Weidong.

　　After Liu Weidong left, volatile PSA Group and Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen Automobile may start a new battle for the rights to speak. Dongfeng Peugeot and Dongfeng Citroen will also stand in a three-way intersection.

　　The upturn came late

　　According to sources close with Dongfeng Auto, Dongfeng would carry out large-scale personnel adjustments between the end of 2009 and the beginning of 2010. Liu Yuhe, the Executive Vice President of Dongfeng Honda will get retired. In addition, the General Manager of DPCA Automobile Liu Weidong will leave his position.

　　According to some insiders, Liu Weidong is the General Manager of DPCA and the issue of whether he will leave his position should be answered by DPCA. A clerk surnamed Chen in the Publicity Department of DPCA refused to accept the telephone interview. Chen said he had not heard the news. He suggested that the correspondent should contact with Dongfeng Co.

　　Statistics showed that after a dismal period from 2005 to 2008, DPCA Auto finally achieved a large-scale increase in 2009. According to the sales figures released by Dongfeng Peugeot and Dongfeng DPCA, the sales for two automakers in November were relatively 10,326 and 18,028 units, with an increase of 156% and 145% year on year.

　　Some insiders commented that with the help of new 307, Sega and other models, DPCA has reached the point of upturn. However, for Liu Weidong the change may be too late.

　　The success and failure for eight years

　　In fact, Liu Weidong's fate attracted widespread attention in the end of 2008. According to some news, the Vice President of Dongfeng Nissan Ren Yong would replace Liu Weidong and become take charge of DPCA.

　　Liu Weidong became the General Manger of DPCA Automobile in 2001. At that time, 35-year-old Liu was the youngest head of a joint venture automobile company. However, he faced a heavy burden with ten billion yuan assets, 70% debt ratio and 300 million yuan loss.

　　At first DPCA cooperated with a single brand-Citroen. Gradually DPCA began cooperating with PSA Peugeot Citroen Group. Since 2004 DPCA has achieved a series of success. And Liu Weidong's reputation reached the peak.

　　However since then the decision-making differences from the board became an obstacle for Liu Weidong. In the past four years, PSA has changed its President for three times. Market strategies in China cannot achieve continuity. As to the introduction of cars, marketing and other aspects, DPCA were faced with restraints.

　　During the eight-year work in DPCA, Liu Weidong adhered to the strategic objective of building the No. 1 brand in China's passenger cars for families. However, compared with FAW Volkswagen and Shanghai Volkswagen, DPCA has been left far behind its competitors.

　　Citroen's Shame

　　Zhang Honghan, the Public Relations Director in Market and Publicity Department of Dongfeng Citroen responded to the news of whether Liu Weidong would leave his position. Zhang said:" Liu Weidong's position does not belong to the scope of Dongfeng Citroen. And I have never heard the news that Liu Weidong will leave his position. “At the same time, Wang Shanshan, the Vice Director in Auto Media Department of Lingsi Public Relations which is responsible for Citroen’s public relations and communication affairs, denied the news.

　　In April 2008 the Commerce Department of Dongfeng Citroen was moved from Wuhan to Shanghai by DPCA in order to attract more marketing talents. DPCA aimed at tackling the sales problem of Citroen.

　　However, since the profits tumbled down in the second half of 2008, several dealers for Dongfeng Citroen faced a broken capital chain. The sales channel of Dongfeng Citroen suffered another hit. The automaker refused to provide vehicles for a 4S dealer in Beijing in the second half of 2008. In September 2008, Shanghai Greenland Group closed another shop of Dongfeng Citroen.

　　After introducing original models to China's market for seven years, Liu Weidong finally achieved the domestic production of Citroen C5. Nevertheless, the imported version of C5 has met quality problems frequently, which may affect the development of DPCA in the future. (Translator: Qinghua/ Hanxin)

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