Skoda, SEAT to Cut More Costs, Share a Single Office Building

The economic recession is still making victims in the automotive industry and, even if most automakers around the world already applied massive cost-cutting plans meant to help them cope with the regression, sales are still at the lowest possible level. As part of a broader campaign to reduce costs of its brands, Volkswagen is now planning to move German operations of Skoda and SEAT in a single office building, Autonews informed us today.

Basically, Volkswagen says that paying for a single building is much more affordable than supporting two different offices, given the current market conditions and the continuously collapsing sales. German sales of SEAT fell to 49,331 units in 2008 from the initial 52,888 units figures recorded the year before, with the market shared decreased to 1.60 percent.

Skoda on the other hand performed pretty good in 2008 as the Czech car manufacturer increased its sales in Germany to 121,277 units versus 118,682 in 2007. In addition, the company managed to raise its market share to 3.9 percent from 3.8 percent a year before.

At this time, the German office belonging to SEAT is located in Moerfelden, 15km west of Frankfurt, according to Autonews, with workforce currently counting 150 workers. Skoda Germany is located in Weiterstadt, 20km south of Frankfurt, and employs 250 people.

The two Volkswagen-owned brands are expected to move into a single office building located in Weiterstadt by the end of 2010, representatives of two companies explained, but the German parent company is still working on the details of the move. SEAT Germany spokesman Alexander Skibbe confirmed the decision and said that more details are expected to be announced in the near future.