- Brand Group Core operating profit grew 80% in 2023 to 7.3 billion euros
- Operating return rose to 5.3% in 2023 on the back of a rigorous focus on cost discipline and profitability
- Year-on-year improvement in return at all five volume brands SEAT/CUPRA, Škoda, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles and Volkswagen
- Brand Group Core sales revenue increased by 21% to 138 billion euros
- Systematic reduction of inventories significantly improved net cash flow to 5.6 billion euros in 2023
- The Brand Group Core plans to increase its result in 2024, bolstered by the related effects from the volume brands’ ongoing performance programs
- Thomas Schäfer, Member of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG, Head of the Brand Group Core & CEO of the Volkswagen Passenger Cars Brand: “The Brand Group Core has a clear strategy – and we are delivering: through close cooperation between our brands, we are working more efficiently, becoming more competitive and boosting our innovativeness for our customers worldwide. It is very important that we continue to improve our economic performance in a difficult environment. That gives us the financial leeway to make targeted investments in vehicles and technologies that enable us to meet customers’ high expectations of our brands.”
in Volkswagen Group, 14-03-2024
The Brand Group Core delivered robust financial results in 2023. Higher volume and price effects, improved availability of parts and lower fixed costs had a positive effect, while higher product costs and the deconsolidation of Volkswagen Group Rus had a negative impact on the result. The global market and competitive environment remains challenging. The Brand Group Core is working on further stabilizing its performance with a view to improving its resilience against external factors, in particular given the slower development of the e-mobility market in Europe.
The systematic expansion of cooperation in the agreed cross-brand core action areas is having a sustained positive effect on key financial performance indicators: Brand Group Core operating profit before special items in 2023 grew 80% year-on-year to 7.3 billion euros (2022: 4.1 billion euros). The main driver here was a 19% increase in unit sales to 4.826 million vehicles (2022: 4.069 million vehicles). Net cash flow increased from 1.1 billion euros in 2022 to 5.6 billion euros. This development was chiefly attributable to the one-off reduction of inventories that largely corrected the inventory build-up due to the shortage of logistics resources in the previous year. The operating return before special items improved by 1.7 percentage points to 5.3% (2022: 3.6%), sales revenue climbed 21% to 138 billion euros (2022: 114 billion euros).
Thomas Schäfer, Member of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG, Head of the Brand Group Core & CEO of the Volkswagen Passenger Cars Brand, said: “The closer cooperation in the Brand Group Core is gaining traction. Our work is beginning to pay off. Our networking has become stronger and more systematic. We now have several projects where cooperation extends beyond former brand boundaries. We have the right team spirit. As the volume brands’ CEO team, we have pushed hard to drive this transformation forward in recent months. Our common goal: to fully exploit our performance potential as a brand group by sharing knowledge and working together to find the best solutions. With our strong, clearly differentiated models we ideally cover important market segments without cannibalizing business for our sister brands. And our networking will become ever closer in order to leverage our enormous combined potential even more effectively in future under difficult economic conditions and within a rapidly changing automotive industry. That is good for each brand, for the Group and for our customers.”
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