Peugeot and Alfa Romeo are not the only brands to come under different leadership now that Stellantis is a fact. Vauxhall will also have a new general manager, Paul Willcox.
Now that Stellantis, which stems from PSA and FCA, is a fact, a number of changes are immediately made to the leadership within the brands. Earlier this week, we learned that Peugeot is getting a new CEO, as its former CEO moves to Alfa Romeo. Now a change is afoot for Vauxhall too. Paul Willcox will become the new CEO of Opel’s British twin brother from 1 February.
Willcox succeeds Stephen Norman, who has been at the helm since 2018. Norman will stay with Vauxhall; he will be primarily responsible for Sales and Marketing. Willcox comes from Groupe PSA management to Vauxhall. At PSA, he oversaw the Eurasian market since 2019. Previously, the Briton worked for Nissan and later Volkswagen as director of the British arm of those brands.
Willcox’s job is to guide Vauxhall through what may be the most challenging period in decades. Brexit puts the production of Vauxhall in the UK at risk, among other things. In addition, since a brief revival in 2015, sales numbers have continued to fall each year. Vauxhall now sells about 800,000 cars a year, before 2010 that was invariably more than a million.