French carmaker – PSA Peugeot Citroen announced its intention to return to sustainable growth of sales in the process of emerging from a state close to bankruptcy, and the transition to normal profit.
The head of the company, Carlos Tavares, described the development strategy as a "global offensive of products and technologies", in which Peugeot plans to increase the number of premieres, offering a new model each year, one for each brand - Peugeot, Citroen and DS - including 11 hybrids and electric cars. The PSA Peugeot Citroen will develop to 2021 26 models of passenger cars and eight commercial trucks. It is stated in terms of the French alliance plan for the next five years, which was named “Push to Pass”.
Peugeot Citroen also plans to expand production in South-East Asia and is looking for a partner for production in India, the company said.
The medium-term plan, presented on Tuesday, is based on a two-year restoration program, which has helped to bring the company to the highest level of profit in 14 years thanks to the help of the French Government.
Peugeot returned to a net profit of 1.2 billion euro ($ 1.37 billion) in 2015 after three years of losses. The operating margin of the company, which was slightly above zero a year earlier, rose to 5 % due to sales - a goal that Tavares intended to achieve only after 2019.
Peugeot said on Tuesday that it intends to maintain a little bit the low value of the average margin of 4 % in the next three years, reflecting the difficult market and currency conditions, and then will move to profitability in the amount of 6 % of sales by 2021.
The automaker also plans to increase Group revenues by 10 % by 2018, and by 2021 expects a growth by another 15 %.