Volkswagen Australia boss extends

Unfinished business will keep the head of Volkswagen Group Australia nailed to his desk for another two years.

Even though Volkswagen’s local arm is on target for 50,000 sales in 2018, managing director Michael Bartsch is intent on taking the total beyond 65,000 before he finishes his time in the top job Down Under.

The 65,000 target was the original goal when Bartsch returned to Australia in 2016 to continue a career which took him through Holden, Hyundai and Porsche in Australia before CEO jobs with both Porsche and Infiniti in the USA.

He now says he is happy to stay at home in Sydney until October 2020 (and perhaps longer) to push the German brand further into the prestige, SUV and ute classes in Australia.

“I’m just starting,” Bartsch told motoring.com.au.

“We're at a stage in the motor industry where it’s one of the most dynamic and changing times in the 30 years I’ve been in it. There hasn’t been a single morning where I’ve woken up and thought ‘Dammit, I have to go to work’.

“This ability to spend another two years in Australia makes imminent sense. There is so much change going on,” he explained.

Bartsch has had to weather big storms through his time at VGA, from DSG transmission fallout to the Dieselgate emissions scandal, but his current frustration is short supply of popular models including the Tiguan and Amarok.

“It’s frustrating. The brand is moving ahead in Australia. All the metrics are heading in the right direction. We’ve spent the last two years getting the network re-calibrated, building capacity. We still have a long way to go,” said Bartsch.

“Our planning parameter is to get this business to 65,000 [registrations] within two years. The only thing that is holding us back on that is supply. With Tiguan we’ve been missing probably 300 cars a month.

“It continues to remain untested, the market, but I think the important thing is that the team here has credibility. We're in a good position to fight for everything. I want to get to 65,000 in those two years.”

As a returning Australian, Bartsch sees the advantages of long-term local leadership and not the rotation system used by many importers.

“I think one of the challenges we’ve had in the past is there have been too many changes of leadership. When you have a vision and a mission you need a stable management team to make sure it’s implemented,” he says.

“One of the challenges the brand has had in the past is that, when you have short tenures, you don’t get the ‘culturalisation’ that you need to have things ‘in the fingertips’. It’s the small nuances that make a huge difference.

“I think that being Australian, particularly in the times that we’re dealing with now, works well from a cultural point of view, from a confidence point of view. That’s exactly what we’re working towards and Germany recognise that.

“We're doing a lot of work here to consolidate the brand in Australia,” Bartsch stated.

“There are a lot of opportunities in Australia that are yet to materialise, coming from the closing of the plants by the local manuafcuters. It’s a very dynamic market.”

The VW Australia boss says he sees challenges with Volkswagen’s dealers but believes he has laid the groundwork for a positive future.

“When I first came here the dealers would say ‘Well you’re only going to be here for three years, let’s see who lasts longer’. There have been a few, let’s says recalibrations, that say this is a team that’s going to be here for five years so that the position and the message and the demands and what we’re expecting isn’t going to change.

“What we say, we mean. And vice-versa. Tenure, on both sides, is very healthy.”

Bartsch is now 60 and into the final phase of his working life, but says he sees no reason to change anything.

“I won’t necessarily retire in Australia, but I’m with a company that I’m passionate about. Always have been -- it’s been in my blood since I was a kid.

“Whether I finish here in Australia, or anywhere else in the world, I will finish working with Volkswagen,” Bartsch stated.