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It was with great enthusiasm that I took up
my duties as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Faurecia on February
16, 2007.
Following on from the initial phase, during
which Faurecia took shape, my mission will now be to lead the Group into
a second phase marked by growth across all its businesses and profitability
among the highest in the industry.
In order to take account of structural changes
in the automotive industry, we are pursuing a policy of strengthening
our plans for progress in our key businesses. As far as our operational
performance is concerned, each of our 160 sites worldwide measures its
progress according to our common management system, the Faurecia Excellence
System.
On an industrial timescale, Faurecia is still
a young company, just approaching maturity.
After gradually forming over the 1997 to 2001
period from a merger between Ecia and
Bertrand Faure, followed by acquisitions
of AP Automotive Systems and Sommer
Allibert, Faurecia has grown into a world-class
player with strong international coverage and
industry-leading technological expertise
in all six major automotive modules:
seats, instrument panels & cockpits,
door panels, front ends, acoustic packages
and exhaust systems.
Faurecia has equipped itself with
the capabilities to position itself as a worldwide
automotive equipment supplier, with a customer
portfolio that includes all the world’s major
automakers. Strong business development
is proceeding in Asia, America and Europe,
to provide a sound basis for long-term organic
growth. With its worldwide production system,
Faurecia is able to serve its customers
wherever the demand arises, with consistent
design, production and service quality.
Faurecia teams must now build on this strong
position to achieve lasting profitable growth across all businesses. The
starting point for profitable growth is the highest level of quality in
all the services Faurecia offers its customers. The Breakthrough Quality
Plan, launched in late 2006, aims to achieve this by 2008. Another prerequisite
is operational excellence in the design, development and launch of new
products, through the Faurecia Program Acquisition & Management System.
In addition, Faurecia will be able to offer its customers competitive
prices, by optimizing its production network and improving industrial
efficiency. With motivated, highly skilled
personnel, Faurecia will be amplifying its product innovation capacities
to achieve greater development latitude, especially outside Europe, and
to strengthen its position as a strategic partner to the worldwide automotive
industry.
After a difficult year in 2006, when profitability
suffered serious erosion under the effects
of increased competition and rising raw
materials costs, 2007 should mark
the first signs of an upswing for quality,
products and operational efficiency across
all Faurecia’s businesses.
Yann Delabrière
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
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Yann Delabrière
Chairman and Chief
Executive Officer |
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