Renault Group to reach 3bn-euro turnover in 2008

The Renault Group will post a 3 billion-euro turnover in 2008, according to Automobile Dacia’s CEO, Franois Fourmont. “We now have a complete industrial system, from development to production and sales, and the company’s turnover will reach 3 billion euros this year,” said Fourmont. He added that Dacia is Renault’s second most important brand for Renault and Romania is the sixth most important country for the group from a commercial point of view. Renault holds the Automobile Dacia plant in Romania, as well as a power train and gearbox plant, a centre for the export of CKD (complete knock down kits – a complete kit needed to assemble a vehicle), and the engineering research centre Renault Technologie Roumanie. Production of Dacia vehicles is estimated to exceed 250,000 units by the end of the year, after 165,000 vehicles were assembled in the first eight months of the year. “Out of the 3 billion euros, Dacia does not account for more than 2.5 billion euros. The rest is generated by the other plants on the industrial site,” explained Constantin Stroe, vice-president of the company. In 2007, Automobile Dacia posted a 2.07 billion-euro turnover. The turnover increase to 2.5 billion euros in 2008 was explained by Dacia officials by an around 35,000-unit higher output against last year, as well as by a rise in CKD exports.