ZF supports Dumarey and Holden bid

The veteran Belgian entrepreneur Guido Dumarey who is bidding to take over Holden’s Elizabeth plant and the Commodore’s Zeta architecture has had his business skills endorsed by the boss of one of the globe’s biggest tier one automotive suppliers, the ZF Group.

Speaking exclusively to motoring.com.au at the Detroit motor show this week, Stefan Sommer described Dumarey as a “serious businessman” and said his proposal to keep Elizabeth open beyond 2017 and the current Commodore in production should be treated with respect because of his business acumen.

“I do not know specifically about this proposal but we know him very well as a successful businessman,” Sommer said.

“We are seeing his initiatives very positively and if he is going in that direction we are willing to support him in this regard.”

Dumarey, who heads the privately owned Punch Group, was a virtual unknown in Australian until his interest in acquiring the Elizabeth plant and the Zeta architecture from General Motors was exclusively revealed by motoring.com.au in late November.

But Sommer knows Dumarey well because the Belgian has twice had important business dealings with ZF, most recently acquiring a former General Motors transmission plant in Strasbourg plant that builds six and eight-speed ZF automatics.

“He is visionary, he is very energetic, he is clearly following his visions,” Sommer said when asked to describe the 56-year old Belgian automotive engineer.

“He is very pragmatic. At the end he is a serious businessman and he fulfils his promises. He has maybe the right view on where he can develop businesses.

“So this is how we found him, as a good partner to us.”

Dumarey most recently visited Australia in pursuit of what he has dubbed Project Erich just before Christmas.

For the first time his plan received general media coverage with News Corp’s Adelaide paper The Advertiser reporting his presence and his preparedness to commit at least $150 million to the plan.

During the visit Dumarey met with his primary political backer, South Australian Senator Nick Xenophon and had first contact with Holden.

Holden is refusing to comment on the matter beyond issuing the following statement:

"The future of our Adelaide plant remains a work in progress. If a party is interested in the ongoing use of one our sites, Holden and GM will assess any detailed plans should they be submitted. Holden has not received any proposal from Punch."

At the Detroit auto show this week global GM executives were obviously warned there would be queries made about Dumarey and offered minimal comment or no comment at all on the matter.

Dumarey was scheduled to be in Detroit this week, but the millionaire businessman pulled out of an interview commitment with motoring.com.au citing unexpected business issues in Europe.

Sommer said ZF’s experience with Dumarey in Strasbourg was a big reason why he had such a high opinion of him. Since the take-over 250 million Euros had been invested in building a new assembly line for the ZF 8HP transmission.

“It was a lucky coincidence that we could together with Guido Dumarey and Punch Automotive take over this plant and in a very small time period create volumes for our customers, which we at ZF could not do in that fast time period,” Sommer said.

Sommer also made it clear that a successful Dumarey bid for Elizabeth would be a huge positive for the ongoing viability of ZF’s Australian business, which includes a plant next door to the Holden plant that supplies axles for the VF Commodore.

Like all automotive suppliers ZF faces a challenging future if all local manufacturing ends as scheduled in Australia by 2018.

“We try to be very close to our customers and as GM Holden and some of our customers are leaving Australia that is a serious situation for us,” said Sommer.

“We have most times chassis and transmissions which are very bulky products and that is the reason we are very close to our customers. So for us it is really vital that we have a car industry so that we really can follow from our supply chain to those customers as a first tier supplier.

“If we do not have a car industry, with these long distances to Australia we hardly see a base to support the automotive industry.”

Dumarey has previously indicated to motoring.com.au that he expects ZF involvement if Project Erich gets the green light. Sommer was not surprised about that.

“He will approach me for sure. We know each other very good and we do not have any problems in our contacts.”

Related reading: