Mitsubishi Planning to Move European Sales Operations to Japan

Hit by falling car sales across the continent, Mitsubishi's European operations have been struggling to keep afloat. But it appears that time is up for Mitsubishi Motors Europe B.V. (MME) as the company has decided to take over and repatriate to its Japanese corporate headquarters all vehicle-related functions including Sales, Marketing, Product Management and Business Planning operations, coordinating them directly with MME's 34 European distributors.

This decision will translate into a reduction of 45% of today's white-collar headcount at the firm's European Sales and Marketing department while the company will also close its regional headquarters in Schiphol-Rijk, near Amsterdam, Holland moving all operations to its European Parts Distribution Centre located in Born, near Maastricht.

Mitsubishi said that these changes would not affect in any way it European vehicle production factory, NedCar in Holland. Mitsubishi's European sales were down 18% between CY2007 and CY2008 (from 200, 045 units to 164,462 units) with a further decrease expected for CY2009, in line with forecasts for the industry in the region.