Daewoo-FSO to eliminate 20 dealerships by end of year

Car manufacturer Daewoo-FSO plans to reduce the number of its dealerships by 20 this year as a result of the continued slump on the local car market. The car manufacturer, which has the largest network of dealerships in Poland, reported a 63% drop in sales in 2001. Daewoo has already reduced its network from 156 to the current 131 outlets. "If we were to maintain the same level of profitability as dealers reported last year, we would have to reduce our network to 70 outlets," said Jerzy Pniewski, director of Daewoo-FSO's sales department. "We are not planning such drastic cuts, and the number of dealers will be reduced by 20 of our weakest performers, by the end of 2002." According to Pniewski the dealers are not yet facing bankruptcy. However, he admitted that most locations are straddling the line between profit and loss. Marek Stepien, president of Autoland, an authorized Daewoo dealer in Warsaw, said "We reduced our employment from 52 people to 19 people over the last two years. This is an absolute miniumum number of employees." (Puls Biznesu, p. 9) P.W.