Just assume that this huge Volkswagen subsidiary, which sells trucks under the strange artificial name Traton, is a school class. Then things would look like this: Right at the front, there are the best of the class, further back the, well, others. Those who sit in the back naturally consider those in the front row to be nerds. The nerds sometimes look back pityingly, shake their heads, think their part, and then look forward again. But in order for the class to be the best class in the world, the nerds from the front row have to work more and more often with those from behind, and that doesn’t always work so well.
Right at the front of the Traton truck class are the profitable Swedes: the truck manufacturer Scania is generating double-digit returns on sales, is technologically ahead, and the corporate culture is considered exemplary. The MAN colleagues sit further back. Once a proud DAX company that produced a lot from trucks to printing machines, marine diesel engines and steel trading. But that was a long time ago. At some point the group was dismantled and today it stands for: solid trucks, but weak margins. And, it seems, is always somehow busy with difficult conversions and with herself. The latest plan is to cut 3,500 jobs – not a pretty perspective, not even seen from the front rows.
Since mid-2020 Matthias Gründler has been the Traton boss, who should ensure that Scania and MAN work together so that a common successful class emerges from the best and the laggards. He had taken over the job from then Traton boss Andreas Renschler, who had surprisingly resigned. Now Gründler is gone too, this Thursday he had his last day at the truck holding company. It was a departure just a few hours in advance, and thus the situation in this very special Traton class has become even more complicated. Or, in other words: a new Volkswagen drama has taken its course.
In Munich they are now talking about a “quite a grave digger mood”
Those in the know now report in Munich that there was a “quite a grave digger mood”. You can now feel that “the wind is getting rougher” for MAN. If the wind gets rougher in Munich in the future, it could also have something to do with the fact that it will soon be blowing more and more from the north. Which brings you to Christian Levin, a man who started his career 27 years ago as Management trainee started at Scania and is now, if you will, the new class representative.
Christian Levin is not only Scania boss – now he also runs the VW truck subsidiary Traton. This changes the power structure.
(Photo: Traton)
On Wednesday evening, the 54-year-old, who had only risen to become Scania boss in February, wrote something very interesting: It was “an honor for him to take on the role of CEO of Traton SE and at the same time to continue as CEO of Scania”. The Scania boss as the Gründler successor and the new Traton boss, an honor – is it the same in Munich? Barely. Here it has always been very important that the truck holding company is run by neutral managers, and now the Scania boss is supposed to rule over MAN as Traton boss. This would mean a long-term internal power struggle – and not in favor of Munich.
With Levin in the “Scaniaisation”, that is the fear in Munich, they fear the end of the traditional Munich company. In any case, the newcomer wants to present his future plan for both truck manufacturers by the end of the year. The question is whether, after years of and often fruitless discussions, strategy meetings and rivalries, a new Swedish-Bavarian sound will emerge? Or is it just getting really uncomfortable for MAN because the Bavarian will hardly be heard?
In any case, many Munich employees see their brand going into the future weakened, not only because of the new Traton boss. It was not until the summer that the long-standing MAN works council chairman, Saki Stimoniaris, surprisingly resigned. The man who hung pictures of the Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara in the works council office himself loved to play the part of the passionate commandante. Many found his manner a bit impulsive and spontaneous, but he had strong support from the workforce. Such a person will be missing.
MAN plant in Munich: The manufacturer is nowhere near as profitable as Scania, now thousands of jobs are to be cut.
(Photo: Stephan Rumpf)
To understand what all of this means for MAN, you have to look back. They used to be rivals and tough competitors; Around 15 years ago, MAN even wanted to take over its competitor Scania. Of all things. The much larger Volkswagen group turned the tables and took over both truck manufacturers. This class of unequal students with very different cultures has existed since then. Many had tried over the years to bring the two truck manufacturers closer together. Build engines together, develop together, shop together and save money. Sometimes it worked, most of the time it didn’t.
The question is: how diplomatic will the newcomer appear now?
“The time for diplomatic negotiations should be over for good,” says someone in Munich. Now one expects “announcements and tough negotiations”. But who is Christian Levin, the man from the front row of the class who is now supposed to perform hard? A dinner almost exactly two years ago at Scania’s headquarters in Södertälje, Sweden, at the table with Christian Levin. Back then, the Scandinavian coordinated the difficult technological developments between the Scania and MAN brands, and that evening he talked about engines and cultures. Elaborate, polyglot, humorous, smart, maybe even the perfect boss for an international truck conglomerate.
If it weren’t for these many previous stories. For example that of the ex-ex-boss Andreas Renschler, who took his hat off in 2020 together with two other board members. A lot of stress, a lot of arguments, a weak IPO. And now, after only a year: the next one, please. “Another bang at Traton,” writes the analyst Frank Schwope from Nord LB. “The fact that the horses are changed again in the middle of the race should delay important tasks.”
Many people ask why now. Gründler was well on the way to further developing Traton. Was it planned for a long time to replace him with Levin after just a few months? There have been indications that something is wrong here all summer. The mood was long gone, probably too long. It is these personnel stories that are often typical for VW, those maneuvers that are often difficult to understand for outsiders, but which then suddenly catch the eye.
Bernd Osterloh was once a powerful VW works council, then he changed sides and became a member of the Traton board in Munich. The boss there is said to have been informed about it late.
(Photo: Susanne Hüner / imago images)
For example, when Bernd Osterloh from Wolfsburg hit the Traton headquarters in May of this year. The barrel finally overflowed. Bernd Osterloh, the long-standing VW works council chief, who was notorious for his strong instinct for power, suddenly ended up as HR director for the truck holding company in Munich. It was a career jump, criticized by many, also because of the increase in the annual salary to over two million euros associated with the change of sides. However, some believe that the powerful labor leader of Lower Saxony had become so uncomfortable for many that he was “disposed of” in far-away Bavaria, combined of course with an interesting job shortly before retirement age.
Two big pullers: Bernd Osterloh and Hans Dieter Pötsch
Gründler, who had only been Traton boss for a year, had someone like that in his ranks whom he hadn’t brought in. Osterloh came from VW, and a name that keeps coming up here: Hans Dieter Pötsch. 70 years old, Austrian, closest confidante of the VW owner families Porsche and Piëch. Pötsch is head of the VW owner holding company Porsche SE, he is chairman of the supervisory board of Volkswagen and Traton. A powerful puller, if you will, just like Osterloh. As a Traton boss, Gründler is said not to have been involved in the Osterloh personnel in advance; there is talk of a “breach of trust”. It happened what happens often in such cases: There was a power struggle. The fact that Gründler lost him says a lot about everything that is possible in this group. If only you have the power.
How could a member of the executive board turn into a great VW drama again? Insiders speak of a “foreign body” who suddenly took a seat in the Munich executive office. One who is hardly involved anywhere, of whom nobody really knows what to do here. “Everyone gives him a wide berth,” was the motto early on in Dachauer Strasse 641. Osterloh, the name that it is better not to pronounce. In the Traton group, which has its headquarters in an industrial area on the northern outskirts of Munich, the 65-year-old, who has been wearing a full beard for some time, is said to have basically never arrived.
However, he is still a member of the Traton board, unlike Gründler. And Pötsch? The Traton chief supervisor praised the change. He sees Levin as a “strong leader who will implement the next chapter for the group”. It is now about “profitability and growth”. Which is also an announcement.
Incidentally, the person who came up with the whole thing was the late VW patriarch Ferdinand Piëch. He collected car brands, brought motorcycles into his corporate empire and at some point found that even 40-ton trucks should belong to a perfect car manufacturer. And so he bought Scania and MAN, and most recently VW also grabbed the US truck manufacturer Navistar.
There it goes: VW boss Herbert Diess thinks that the new Traton boss is “the right step at the right time”.
(Photo: Carsten Koall / dpa)
All of the fun cost around 25 billion euros, and in summer 2019 the entire truck business was listed on the stock exchange under the name Traton. However, the truck colossus is currently worth a mere eleven billion euros on the stock exchange.
And so it’s not just about personal details, but also billions. That is why the pressure from Wolfsburg is increasing and that is why the wind is blowing from the north. “This is the right step at the right time,” tweeted VW boss Herbert Diess. The question is whether everyone sees it that way.