Geert Bruyneel, who is currently vice president of supplier quality and logistics at Volvo Cars, is moving to a new role at the carmaker in August this year as vice president for purchasing and manufacturing in Asia.
His role in Europe will be taken over by Anders Svensson, who has held senior management positions within Vehicle Line Management and Purchasing & Supplier Quality at SAAB/General Motors and, most recently, as vice president Indirect Purchasing & Powertrain Purchasing at Volvo Cars.
Bruyneel has been with Volvo Cars since 2001 when he started at Gent as director of engineering and quality. Since then he has held a number of high-ranking roles including managing director of Volvo Cars Gent and vice president of quality at Volvo Cars Corporation.
In his new position, Bruyneel will develop the purchasing and manufacturing collaboration, and synergies, within the region (P&M Asia), according to Volvo Cars. P&M Asia will have the operational responsibility for purchasing, logistics and manufacturing units in Asia (China and Malaysia).
China is Volvo Cars’ leading market in Asia and Bruyneel will bring have plenty of scope to exercise his expertise if the carmaker’s projections to exceed the overall performance in the premium sector come to fruition.
Last month Volvo said it expected its sales in China this year to grow faster than the overall market for premium cars. Haken Samuelsson, president and CEO of Volvo Cars said he expected growth in the overall market for passenger cars in China in 2015 to slow to between 5-7%, with the premium sector staying reasonably buoyant with growth of between 5-10%. Volvo’s growth will outpace the overall premium sector, he said. China was Sweden’s largest individual market in 2014, with sales of 81,000 cars, 17.4% of total retail sales.
