Volkswagen CFO: after cost-cutting deal, productivity must go up
Published by Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on January 15, 2025
1 min readLast updated: January 27, 2026

Published by Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on January 15, 2025
1 min readLast updated: January 27, 2026

Volkswagen's CFO stresses the importance of boosting productivity in German plants following a cost-cutting deal to ensure competitiveness and future investments.
BERLIN (Reuters) - Volkswagen's chief financial officer said in comments to investors seen by Reuters on Wednesday that the next step to making its German plants competitive was to improve productivity, increasing the number of cars produced per worker.
CFO Arno Antlitz, speaking to investors in New York on Tuesday, said that the cost-cutting deal struck with unions last December tackled the carmaker's problems of high labour costs and capacity underutilisation.
The deal was attached to clear and measurable milestones and new measures would be developed if goals were not met, Antlitz added, without specifying what the milestones were.
However, increasing productivity was the decisive third step to achieve cost reduction targets and create conditions in which the company could make further investments in plants, he added.
"We will only invest in competitive plants. Germany cannot be an exception," Antlitz said.
(Reporting by Victoria Waldersee; Editing by Madeline Chambers)
CFO Arno Antlitz stated that increasing productivity is essential to achieve cost reduction targets and to create conditions for further investments in plants.
The cost-cutting deal addressed high labour costs and capacity underutilization at Volkswagen's German plants.
Antlitz mentioned that the deal included clear and measurable milestones, but he did not specify what those milestones were.
Antlitz emphasized that Volkswagen would only invest in competitive plants, indicating that Germany cannot be an exception in this regard.
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