Dacia's Esteve not staying to see X90 in production

Five years in Romania later, Christian Esteve, the man that negotiated the coming of French carmaker Renault at Dacia and has run the company ever since, has decided to leave. Esteve has also been very actively involved in the X90 project (the 5,000 euro Dacia model) – Renault’s real bet in Romania. Esteve will leave his general manager position at Dacia to become deputy general secretary of the Renault Group early in July.

Along with Constantin Stroe, the man that had run Dacia for many years and is now deputy chairman of the company, Christian Esteve was the one who had to implement the strategy set by Renault upon privatisation: cutting the number of employees from more than 27,500 to nearly 16,300 by late next year and the launch of a 5,000 euro model on the market, which would help the Pitesti-based carmaker turn a profit.

Esteve also had to struggle with a much lower performance car market than indicated by Renault’s calculations when it came at Dacia, as well as with union protests that peaked this spring, when a general strike took place. Under the circumstances, the financial results of the Romanian carmaker have kept below those anticipated by the French year by year. Dacia posted 86 million euro losses last year and more than 75 million euro losses in 2001, compared with the 56 million euro and 40 million euro estimates.

At present, most of the goals are close to being attained. Esteve told Ziarul Financiar the company would break even in Q4, next year and post annual profit as of 2005, as soon as the 5,000 euro Dacia starts being made. ionut.bonoiu@zf.ro