(News Bulletin 247) – The automobile group announces a major overhaul of its staff, and formalizes the retirement of Carlos Tavares, its emblematic general director, at the end of his mandate, i.e. in January 2026. Stellantis is moving back to Paris Stock Exchange.

Stellantis is going through a zone of turbulence. At the end of September, the automobile group issued a heavy profit warning. The company is facing significant difficulties in its most important market, North America, where Stellantis is struggling to reduce its inventories.

For the 2024 financial year, the group is now counting on a current operating margin of between 5.5% and 7%, whereas it previously anticipated a rate at least equal to 10%. In addition, the company indicated that it expects negative industrial free cash flow ranging from -5 billion to -10 billion euros whereas it previously expected to generate positive cash flow.

It was too much warning for the car manufacturer resulting from the merger between Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Peugeot SA which has lost a large part of its credit with the market.

In a reaction note to this resounding profit warning, Oddo BHF had lost “faith/confidence” in Stellantis. The office considered that this new adjustment of objectives raised too many questions about the governance at the head of the group for a turnaround in the situation to occur quickly and confirmed that the conflictual approach adopted with all stakeholders (employees, dealers, suppliers, governments and now even investors) was not the right one.

A formalized retirement

The Franco-Italian-American company therefore announced this Friday a radical decision to restore its credibility with investors. And this requires a major reshuffle of its staff. And Stellantis also puts an end to speculation about the future of Carlos Tavares at the helm.

The car manufacturer announced on the night of Thursday to Friday the retirement of Carlos Tavares in January 2026, at the end of his mandate. The company formed from the merger of Fiat Chrysler and Peugeot SA in January 2021 also confirmed that the formal process of identifying its successor was “under way”. “This process is managed by a special committee of the Board of Directors chaired by John Elkann and which will complete its work in the fourth quarter of 2025,” specifies Stellantis.

The question of Carlos Tavares retiring was starting to be on everyone’s lips. And the main person concerned had more or less mentioned this idea last week during a trip to the historic Peugeot factory in Sochaux.

“In 2026, the person who answers you will be 68 years old, it is a reasonable age to retire. It is the option,” declared Carlos Tavares in response to a question from BFM Business during this trip.

Besides, Stellantis was already starting to think about the post-Carlos Tavares era. The Franco-Italian-American automobile group indicated at the end of September that it had launched a succession process, as is “normal” to do in a group of this importance.

This is therefore the announced end of Carlos Tavares’ adventure at Stellantis. The manager made his debut at Peugeot SA in 2014. His method was based on rationalizing the number of models (too numerous at the time he took charge), and emphasizing pricing power. allowed him to relaunch PSA, but also to turn around Opel-Vauxhall, bought in 2017, in record time. It is also this method which made it possible to extract the synergies from the merger between Fiat Chrysler and PSA at the top as quickly as possible. of his glory at the end of 2019.

Changes with immediate effect

In addition to the announced retirement of Carlos Tavares, the company wishes to be more efficient in its organization in order to navigate a “turbulent global environment”. Stellantis thus explains that it wants to refocus on its “main operational priorities and to tackle with determination the global challenges facing the automotive sector”.

With this in mind, the Franco-Italian-American group has also made targeted organizational changes which come into “immediate effect” within its management team.

Financial director Natalie Knight, who arrived in this position in mid-2023, was disembarked. She is replaced by Doug Ostermann, who was until then director of operations in China. Jean-Michel Imparato is now head of the Europe region in place of Uwe Hochgeschurtz.

Antonio Filosa is appointed director of operations in North America, complementing his current role as director of the Jeep brand. He succeeds to Carlos Zarlenga whose next position will be the subject of a new announcement.

Stellantis has also decided to link the management of its supplies to the industrial department, and more to that of purchasing “for greater commercial performance”.

On the Paris Stock Exchange, Stellantis was down 2.4%, around 10:30 a.m. after the announcement of this reshuffle at the head of the car manufacturer. This brings the decline in Stellantis shares to 43% over the whole of 2024, the second largest in the CAC 40, behind STMicroelectronics. And to think that in 2023 the manufacturer had the best performance in the Parisian index (+59%).