Fabrice Cambolive ended his term in Romania, where he was in charge of Renault, Dacia and Nissan sales, and on September 1 took the position of commercial manager for the Renault brand in Russia and Eurasia.
The 43-year old Frenchman describes the period he spent in Romania as “the richest in personal and professional terms.” Before coming to Romania, Cambolive had run the Renault importer in Switzerland, the marketing department of Dacia-Renault in Germany and Renault sales for Germany, Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom. In Romania he took the reins of the Renault group’s brands almost exactly when sales started falling – in March 1, 2009.
“The time spent in Romania represented the period of unprecedented economic crisis in Romania that called into question everything I’d learnt. In the face of a crisis like this, the focus must fall on the purely rational side of business and we must equally address issues related to inventories, cash flow and expenses and preserve the idea of a team,” Cambolive told ZF.
Cambolive is the second French executive at the company to have been promoted to Russia, after Christian Esteve, the first general manager of Dacia in the Renault era.
Regarding Romania, Cambolive says it is a country of contrasts, “both in terms of differences between cities and villages, between Balkan or Turkish and European influences, and for the fact that Romania is a Latin island in a Slavic sea. For me, this diversity was an adventure. Personally, I’m very attached to Romania, in the three years I visited all the dealerships of the network, from Satu Mare, to Alexandria or Timisoara to Tulcea”.
Cambolive believes Dacia will continue to grow in the following period, even as the new models will no longer represent “revolutions” as it happened with Logan in 2004 or Duster in 2010.
“Dacia does not plan to revolutionize the car market next year, but to add new models to its range and this will not be achieved only in 2012, but gradually in the following years. I believe expanding its range and portfolio is of most importance for Dacia. Changing everything at once is dangerous,” Cambolive explained.
He estimates a market of around 110,000 units this year, which includes cars and light commercial utility vehicles, namely a 5% decline against last year.
“The domestic car market bottomed out in the first half of this year. However, for the past two months, we’ve noticed an increase in orders against the same period of last year, and 2012 will bring a 10% increase from this year”.
Cambolive also expects the number of deals involving car dealers to rise in the next two years as distribution networks adapt to a market accounting for just a third of the level reached three years ago.
(English version by Catalina Apostoiu; Editing by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu, Radu Bostan)