MOSCOW: Nicolas Maure, brought in to turn around Renault-Nissan's Russian carmaker Avtovaz, is entering a lion's den where his predecessor fell foul of diving sales and powerful vested interests among shareholders, suppliers and workers.
The 55-year-old Frenchman is likely to press on with cutting the workforce and weeding out shoddy component suppliers, albeit at a slower place than the last chief, while fending off those who want to keep the status quo.
Avtovaz, producer of Russia's best-selling Lada brand and the country's biggest automaker by sales, is deeply troubled.
Maure was named chief executive on Tuesday to replace Swedish national Bo Andersson, who fell victim to Russia's economic slump which hurt car sales, and came under fire from Avotvaz's Russian shareholders who criticised him for laying off workers.
Until now, Maure has been running Renault's Romanian business Dacia, giving him experience of working in a former Communist bloc state and dealing with prickly unions. But the problems he will encounter at Avtovaz's Togliatti plant on the Volga river are on a different scale.
One manager has been shot dead since the collapse of communism in Russia - an incident linked to organized crime which at times has infected the auto industry - and in the past few years some senior staff at the plant have gone around Togliatti with bodyguards.
Maure's appointment was announced by Avtovaz's main shareholders, the Renault-Nissan alliance and Russian state-owned Rostec, confirming an earlier Reuters report.
"Avtovaz has modernised its line-up and manufacturing processes, and significantly improved product quality," said Carlos Ghosn, who heads the Franco-Japanese alliance and is Avtovaz chairman. "We remain bullish about the long-term future of the Russian market and Avtovaz as the leading domestic automaker."
Renault-Nissan owns a combined 67 percent of the holding company that controls Avtovaz while Rostec, a defense conglomerate, owns the remaining 33 percent.
Maure is a 16-year veteran of Renault who decorated his office in Romania with large numbers of miniature cars. In his job as president and CEO of Automobile Dacia SA, he handled tough wage negotiations, with unions threatening to strike.
Management raised the prospect that production could move to Renault's more competitive plant in the Moroccan city of Tangiers if wages in Romania rose too much. In the end, the two sides settled on a 5 percent wage rise and bonus for 2016.
Nevertheless, the Dacia business is growing. By contrast, Avtovaz has been hammered by the Russian economic crisis caused by low oil prices and Western sanctions.
Avtovaz reported a net loss of 73.85 billion roubles (US$999.3 million) for 2015, almost triple the 2014 loss, and issued a plea for cash to shareholders. Renault wrote down the value of its investment in the firm by 70 percent.
Lada is also being challenged by South Korean rivals Kia and Hyundai which make cars in a similar price range and, as foreign brands, are preferred by some status-conscious Russians.
