Page 33 - Commercial Vehicle Engineer - April 2019

PEOPLE
One of Europe’s top trailer-makers is seeking to accelerate growing sales further with a bold drive
into nancial services.
A new nancial services division has been
created at Kögel, a Burtenbach, Germany- based trailer manufacturer with an annual output of around 18,000 that puts it among the three biggest in Europe.
The move into nancial services is the brainchild of Josef Warmeling, who rejoined Kögel about a year ago to take responsibility for sales in several European markets, including Germany, France, Spain, Scandinavia and the UK.
“Over the next few years, our goal is to close the gap between ourselves and our big market competitors, and to continue to position ourselves as a strong number three in Europe,” said Mr Warmeling last April.
“We will place a clear focus on our customer’s requirements for the future: high exibility, short downtimes, low life- cycle costs and premium-quality products.”
Two months ago, Mr Warmeling persuaded Sebastian Volbert to leave
the Volkswagen group’s nancial services division, where he hade been truck and bus international key account manager, to join Kögel as its rst head of nancial services.
Mr Volbert, 50, is no stranger to the trailer business. For nearly 14 years, ending in 2010, he was sales nancing manager at Schmitz Cargobull, Europe’s biggest trailer- maker. From there, he moved to Vienna- based VB-Leasing International and was
Josef Warmeling
Sebastian Volbert
head of its transport, construction and agriculture division before joining MAN Truck & Bus as international key account manager in its nancial services operation.
At Kögel, Mr Volbert now reports to Mr Warmeling and is charged with managing “a brand new concept” for trailer nancing, leasing and hire purchase.
“This will help customers make speedy purchase decisions,” he says. “Structured sales nancing throughout Europe will advance our internationalisation and strengthen our market position.”
Kögel’s parent group, Humbaur, has invested heavily over the past two years in modernising its two main manufacturing sites in Germany and the Czech Republic. Now the emphasis is turning more towards sales and marketing.
“Kögel Finance will soon be offering other attractive services,” says Mr Warmeling. “Our customers are already asking for this service today and soon we will be able to offer it to them. We expect that most trailers will be leaving the factories via nancing solutions in future.”
Heléne Mellquist
T he new boss of Volvo Trucks’ European
division is Heléne
Mellquist.
She lls the vacancy created by the
promotion of Roger Alm to Volvo Trucks president two months ago. Ms Mellquist, 55, has been vice- president in charge of Volvo truck
sales in the Middle East, Africa, Australia and Asia for the past three years.
She rst started working for
Volvo Group in 1988, but also holds board director positions in other companies, including Thule, Cavotec and BizDrive.
She is a former chief executive of a Swedish shipping company, Transatlantic.
At Volvo Group she will now report directly to Roger Alm.
“Heléne Mellquist is a dynamic and experienced leader and has
a strong focus on customer success,” he says.
“I am very pleased to hand over Volvo Trucks Europe to her.”
Ms Mellquist says she looks forward to “really exciting times ahead, with innovations that will make transport solutions more ef cient and sustainable.”
COMMERCIAL VEHICLE ENGINEER > APRIL 2019 33