EU Automobile Industry - Czech Republic: Union at VW's Skoda Auto accepts 12 percent wage increase offer

Union representatives at Volkswagen-owned Skoda Auto <VOWG_p.DE> said on Friday they had accepted management’s offer to raise wages by 12 percent, averting a strike at one of the largest manufacturing plants in the Czech Republic.

The leadership of the Kovo union, which represents industrial workers, plans to vote on the proposal next Wednesday, which would cover the period from April 1, 2018 to the end of March 2019, although that is seen as a formality. The offer also includes increases in bonuses and incentives.

Czech wages have been rising rapidly across sectors, putting pressure on employers, following strong economic growth in recent years and a fall in unemployment to its lowest level in two decades.

Read more: Union at VW's Skoda Auto accepts 12 percent wage increase offer | Euronews

Bloomberg.com: Volkswagen Sales Rise 0.6% as Skoda, Audi Win Buyers

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Volkswagen Sales Rise 0.6% as Skoda, Audi Win Buyers

Volkswagen AG, Europe’s largest carmaker, said global sales rose to a record in 2008 as demand for Audi and Skoda models and growth in emerging markets helped counter a slump in the U.S. Global deliveries advanced 0.6 percent to 6.23 million vehicles last year from 6.19 million in 2007, Wolfsburg, Germany- based Volkswagen said today in a statement.

Twin City: Automotive Industry: The Czechs do it with Skoda, so should Detroit - by Bernard Avishai

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Automotive Industry: The Czechs do it with Skoda, so should Detroit - by Bernard Avishai

It has become conventional wisdom that the reeling U.S. auto industry desperately needs to innovate. The hard part for Detroit is working out how. There is hope, even for an entrenched, sprawling company such as General Motors. Take Skoda, the Czech auto manufacturer (slogan: "Simply Clever"), which in 1991 became a part of the Volkswagen Group, the largest car manufacturer in Europe. Skoda is thriving today because its elegance-minded Bohemian designers have learned to exploit the access VW management has given them to virtually the entire spectrum of the conglomerate's components. At first, Skoda also simply put a Czech skin around the German-engineered Golf. But today, the company creates original cars for low-end, low-tech markets whose boundaries are carefully negotiated with other VW Group members (it reportedly exports 80 percent of its vehicles to 92 countries). Skoda's former CEO, Detlef Wittig, told me that his firm's latest model, the adorable Roomster, would break even after selling only 60,000 units a year. He said that Skoda now accounts for about 20 percent of VW Group profits. (In case you're wondering: Yes, the Roomster may take some customers away from the VW brand, but the VW Group as a whole will be better off for it. And no, Skoda's competitive advantage is not cheap labor: Czech labor is no cheaper than South Korean.

Government — or, more precisely, governments — can help only if they grasp the way manufacturing companies work. The shakiest firms will need a tariff regime that permits an auto group to import components from the country where they are designed or most competitively produced. The European Union's trade rules were a huge help in making it possible for Skoda to acquire components from VW Group companies, including the Spanish firm SEAT. Federal and state governments should help jump-start a grid for electric cars, as Israel is doing. Most important, perhaps, Washington should move to stimulate innovation in entrepreneurial companies along the whole supply chain — companies aspiring to provide new generations of components.

IHT: Czech carmaker Skoda reports almost 16 percent rise in 1Q sales

Skoda doing well world-wide

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Czech carmaker Skoda reports almost 16 percent rise in 1Q sales

Czech carmaker Skoda Auto AS, a unit of German manufacturer Volkswagen AG, said Monday its sales in the first quarter of 2008 rose 15.7 percent on the year. Skoda Auto sold a total of 173,474 cars in the first three months of the year, the company said in a statement. "The first quarter results were also positively influenced by growing demands on the markets of eastern Europe and China," the statement said. It said it sold 27,461 units in the eastern European region, up 38.6 percent from the same period last year. Skoda Auto also delivered 16,212 cars in the period to China, where sales began in June. Skoda Auto delivered more than 27,000 cars there in 2007. Skoda Auto delivered a record 630,032 cars in 2007. It said it aims to boost annual car output to 1 million by 2010 and to 1.5 million in 10 years.